5 years ago

Five years ago our life was soooo different. Pam was still two weeks away from beginning the fight against her newly discovered cancer. She had all her parts. Her memory hadn't be stolen yet. Her teaching skills were second to none. She walked this hall each day tending to her 6th graders with love and amazing skill. Most of the people she taught with during her many years at Mossville have left by now. It is such a different place. It is almost strange to go back there now, like Josh and I did for a basketball game on Monday night. He and I recollected about the fun times we had in the gym on the weekend days or the many evenings Pam worked in her room and he, Erin and I played in the gym. He chuckled as he recalled the light he may or may not have broken with a misguided basketball shot. He and Erin remember how they used to leave drawings and messages on Pam's whiteboard for her class to see the following day. That hallway/classroom was pretty new when Pam left. Last time we were in there it still had that "new" classroom smell. We remembered the good (really old) old days when Pam was in her room nearest the office. The days of catching dozens of mice in the live trap, then trying to figure out how to kill them. Pregnant Pam (with Josh), teaching kids who have long since graduated from high school. Remembering some kids and many co-teachers/friends from Mossville who aren't on this earth anymore. Bringing either kid to Mossville to have lunch with Pam, and/or for Pam to give them lunch (again, back when she had all her parts).

It's just weird to think back. Five years doesn't seem like a long time, but so much has happened in those five years. So odd.