September2005 | OctoberFifth
My English teacher has cancer. Or at least, my English teacher from 7th and 8th grade does - yes I had the same one. Actually, we always knew that some 15 odd years ago, she had breast cancer, earlier this August, she found that she now had cancer in her liver and it was getting very bad. Even though the High School is pretty close to the Jr. High, we never passed there and could not visit. When we found out about the return of her cancer, my best friend (who is a complete doodling pro) fashioned a poster-sized card for her and got just about everybody to sign [who used to be in her class]. She’s always been the favorite among her students (though I can’t talk for a few new 7th graders who have some rather strange preferences) and given that she was able to have us for 2 years, got to know just about every single one of our quirks. Then again, she was the only teacher that let us have the chance to show all our quirks.
Anyway, we filled up the entire inside and back with notes and signatures. We actually did plan to throw her a party, but never got around to it. Then yesterday, we learned that she was leaving her teaching post for a couple of months to get Chemo treatment, and was leaving Friday. We decided to act quickly. So in the space of less than a day, we rounded up about 30-some people to walk to the Jr. High with us to visit her. I know it’s only been a few months since we were there, but the nostalgia hit bad.
Even though she was very cheerful and optimistic, you could tell how much she’d thinned. She said that she’d told her current classes to expect her back January with not a hair on her head, but her face, throat, shoulders, and arms looked like sagging skin on bones. She joked that she looked “preggers”, but that was from the fluid building up in her stomach and thighs - according to her, she had a couple liters pumped out of her just yesterday! It was so different from how we knew her - she got tired after about 20 minutes or so and we had to leave. It’s just so…so…strange to see someone change like that.
I mean, in health, we’re doing the whole drug-abuse unit right now, and learning about self-created illness and cancers from, well, abusing drugs and alcohol. They can be prevented, but cancer is cancer, especially in a healthy and altogether energetic lady (can’t call her young, she’s pushing 56). So they say there are ‘natural illnesses’. I just can’t see what natural about mutant cells killing you from within. It’s just very…emotional. I’m not great about expressing things like this.
[We also paid a visit to the Algebra teacher afterward, and tried calling on some others, but they had apparently left already, which I suppose it natural if you think about how long it took us to gather together and walk there. We cut through an elementary school just as it ended. I'll bet the little kids thought it strange having 30-something high schoolers trampling through their "turf". I love being older. Mwah.]
