You were a beautiful woman. When one is compelled to state that another being is beautiful, the statement is usually followed by the obligatory "Beauty is only skin deep," "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," etc. But you were beautiful inside and out, and we all loved you for it, and will remember you for it. We knew that you missed us this past year, because we were your first class and we cooperated and helped you learn from your (few) mistakes. We missed you as well, because we had matured in that one year, with your guidance and aid. Now, we will be missing you forever.

No longer will I see your smiling face as I climb the stairs to my classes, nor will I encounter you lingering outside the English office as I cut negatives into negative pages near the photo lab. None of us will ever receive a reassuring glance and wink from you as we face future English conferences and grades, and I won't ever stop you in the library to chat and ask for advice again.

As we all are, I am eminently sorrowful and grief-stricken. Yet, unlike some of my peers, I am also bewildered at the unfairness of life. It strikes me how such a young, intelligent, humourous, kind, understanding, and thoughtful woman could have neglected to stop at a STOP sign and had to pay the price of her life for not following a rule. A rule that is broken countless times, every day, and in every location possible. A broken rule which seldom leads to such consequences as it did in your case. It pains me and confounds me, this occurrence, and the general fact. The seeming fact that the people who die young are some of the best people, the ones worthiest of life. The young who have already influenced so many lives, and were destined to affect the course of many more. My only consolation is in the knowledge that most of these young people will live on in the memories of all who surrounded and admired them, and all whose lives were touched by them.

So, Mrs. T, thank you for brightening the days of my first two years in high school. Thank you for teaching me invaluable skills and life lessons. Thank you for a year of wonderful English 9 Honors classes, on behalf of myself and the rest of the class of 2001. Thank you for all the advice and the listening which transcended the walls of the classroom. My deepest gratitude to you for being not only a teacher, but also a wonderfully valuable friend.

Remembering you, all my love,