Ms. Williams was a remarkable teacher.  She was a teacher in the Middle School for thirteen years.  But it wasn’t the number of years teaching that made her so remarkable.  It was how she lived, everyday, for ten years, which made her so.   

            Ms. Williams loved her work.  Everyday, she walked her way purposefully to school.  She used to carry two bags, one on each hand.  On her right, she would carry the things she needed for school, while on the other, a smaller bag which contained two diligently-packed lunches: one for her, and one extra for in case some pupil forgot his/her lunch or lunch money!  Ms.  Williams was this generous and her thoughtfulness is beyond words.  These generosity and thoughtfulness was often seen and attested to by none other than her pupils and co-teachers themselves.  This was how she viewed her profession as a teacher: a place where not only knowledge can be taught, but a place where love can be sown as well, through her examples.

            For Ms. Williams, teaching was not at all a profession but a mission.  On the rare and precious moments that she has invited me over for a cup of her famous hot chocolate after mowing her tiny lawn, Ms. Williams would often recount to me how important the youth is.  This was a cause she sincerely believed in and untiringly fought for.  You see, Ms. Williams believed that the problems in this world were often caused by being unloved.  And in the small world the she moved around in, in the simple daily tasks that she did everyday as a teacher, Ms. Williams made sure that no pupil, no friend, no colleague of her went uncared for and unloved.  It might be in the simple way she would greet her fellow teachers that she conveyed to them that even with the busy schedule of a teacher, a moment’s greeting would go a long way for the other person.  It might also be in the way that she stays up late after school to wait with a kid who had not been fetched by his parent.  It might be in the way that she made sure everybody in her class had taken their lunch, or in the way she can easily sensed and understood a child’s first experience with family problems in the home. 

            As tiny as Ms. Williams physical frame was, she definitely had a big heart.  And she made sure that everyone got their chance inside it everyday for as long as she lived.

            Ms. Williams will surely be missed by her colleagues, her neighbors, her students and most especially her family.  What consoles us now is the knowledge that she is back again to her Heavenly Father’s embrace to enjoy the same love she so generously gave and showed to the world through her life.