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Thread: Tough Emails to Read

  1. #1
    Educating Cyrus wuapinmon's Avatar
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    Tough Emails to Read

    No matter how many years go by, when I get an email from a student telling me that their parent is dying in the hospital, I remember that fear and ache in my heart as I drove home to pull the plug on Papa wuap. Nothing I can say to them will help, so I just try to go out of my way to work with them so that they don't fall too far behind. But, my class meets for 6 hours per week, every week, and I've only had one kid ever do well after something like this. I got an email from a 19 y/o this afternoon telling me that his cancer-stricken mother had a stroke Friday morning, and tests showed that the cancer has spread throughout her body (all from a melanoma). He asked that I please excuse him since he won't have much time left with her and wants to be there.

    Poor kid. In the case of my grandfather, he welcomed death, as did we. He was 95, bored, and uncomfortable with no hope of ever feeling better. But, for a teenager to lose their mom......Hay golpes en la vida tan fuertes. Yo no sé.
    "This culture doesn't sell modesty. It sells "I am more modest than you" modesty." -- Two Utes

  2. #2
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wuapinmon View Post
    No matter how many years go by, when I get an email from a student telling me that their parent is dying in the hospital, I remember that fear and ache in my heart as I drove home to pull the plug on Papa wuap. Nothing I can say to them will help, so I just try to go out of my way to work with them so that they don't fall too far behind. But, my class meets for 6 hours per week, every week, and I've only had one kid ever do well after something like this. I got an email from a 19 y/o this afternoon telling me that his cancer-stricken mother had a stroke Friday morning, and tests showed that the cancer has spread throughout her body (all from a melanoma). He asked that I please excuse him since he won't have much time left with her and wants to be there.

    Poor kid. In the case of my grandfather, he welcomed death, as did we. He was 95, bored, and uncomfortable with no hope of ever feeling better. But, for a teenager to lose their mom......Hay golpes en la vida tan fuertes. Yo no sé.
    Sorry, wuap. Poor kid. The only thing you can for him is what you are doing. I'm sure that if he ever needs a listening ear and heart, yours will be available to him.

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  3. #3
    Sorry to hear that wuap. I hope that your student cherishes those last few precious moments with their mother.

  4. #4
    Educating Cyrus wuapinmon's Avatar
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    Just got one from a solid student. She wasn't in class yesterday or today. She was in a car wreck on Saturday, broke her foot and is blind in one eye. Maybe forever. Ugh.
    "This culture doesn't sell modesty. It sells "I am more modest than you" modesty." -- Two Utes

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