This morning at breakfast I asked Makaila what I should write Marc’s Musings about this week, hoping that I would catch a glimpse of what someone her age thinks about. I can’t remember word for word what her answer was, but it embraced an idea of death being something reserved for people who have done everything in their lives that they have wanted to do. “Kind of like the final chapter in a book where people have worked hard all their lives and are granted rest?” I asked. “Yes” she said.
And then she gave me the June calendar from her school and reminded me that the actual number of in class days for her is down to the single digits. As I held that calendar in my hand I realized that a final chapter in her own life is ending. My baby girl is heading off to High School in the fall…into a world where it might not be cool anymore to write about her in my Musings for awhile, into a world where roads have steeper hills and sharper turns and into a world where the roads divide and lead her away from home. I’m already experiencing that anticipatory grief.
Makaila has had a wonderful experience at school, and I just can’t say enough about that. Every year she has had a mutually respectful relationship with her teachers. She has always looked forward to school and would come home with positive comments on her day. She has many good friends and is willing to help others. It has only been positive.
And so Gail and I would like to say thank you. Thanks to all of you who have shared one of lifes greatest privileges with us…raising our child. Thanks for the life lessons that you taught her, the encouragement and the praise that you gave her and the drive that gave her the determination to keep going, get good marks and make good decisions. I know that she will look back with much fondness on this chapter of her life as many of us do…I still think of the great teachers that I had in my life from my beginning at S.S.#8 Beechwood to my ending at Humber College. So to all teachers in every school, along with all of the support staff who enhance the lives of our children…thank you!
