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My Friend

"Isn't it 'la bandera'?" I asked. "Si, 'la bandera." It was my third year of teaching and I was studying to take a Spanish-language test soon. I had asked a friend, our school's custodian, to teach me a new word each day. I looked for help wherever I could get it because passing this test meant a lot to me.

Always friendly, even in low spirits, my friend would enter my room after school each day to throw out trash and clean tables. Even in those moments of sadness, one felt a kindness beaming from her that led naturally to sympathy.

It wasn't as though she often felt sadness. Indeed, there poured from her heart an unflagging love for her God and her children that often gave me pause on days when I battled with my own students for their behavior in the latter part of the school year.

Enthusiastic in her work and gregarious all the while, my friend was known for being the best at her job, and proud of that reputation; but a few years ago, this friend learned that she had cancer. Grounded in her understanding of what this could mean, she nonetheless held fast to her faith in her Creator and was, indeed, an example of unrelenting trust to me when trust would be difficult at best.

Equally astounding was her attitude toward those she loved. While it would be both understandable and expected to invest one's attention in one's own future, it surprised me to see that this friend instead showed concern about the future of her grandchildren. "I'm sad that they won't have a grandmother around," she said.

This is the person who showed kindness to me in my first year of teaching on days when I left school at 9:00 at night, telling me it would get better and giving me examples of past teachers who began leaving earlier as they continued their careers. This was the person whom many teachers requested for her hard work and thoroughness at cleaning; and this was the person who has witnessed a cadre of relatives, friends, and teachers stream into her home week after week to comfort her after learning the doctors could do nothing more to treat the cancer.

Even in the sunset of her life, her spirit continues to enrich the lives of those around her. Indeed, she is an example to us of both faith and love, and I am proud to call her my friend.

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