The year was 2008, and I had just been hired as a 5th grade teacher at Oklahoma Elementary. Only a few weeks into the school year, the sweet and vivacious 3rd grade teacher from a different hallway stood outside my door and asked, “Would you like to join the Sunshine Committee?” It was her tone- half serious, half silly, which would become very familiar to me in the next 14 years that gravitated my personality to hers.
Marji, as you may know, has a heart right on the surface, but feelings that run very deep. After a decade of 5th grade, I got to move to 3rd grade, which meant my days at school would be in the company of this sweet companion. Our best days and worst days of teaching played out together. In planning periods, meetings, or in the hallways after-school, you can bet Marji’s sense of humor had a way of alleviating tensions and finding the funny in our days. I often misquote Philippians 4:13 as , “I can do all things through Marji who gives me humor.”
She has a way of staying with me long after the moment is over, and days later, I will think of something she has said, and be roaring with laughter- tears running down my cheeks. The woman can dance like no other, and makes a mean apple dumpling. She and Dan have become dear friends of Tim and I outside of school, and love on our children like we are family.
I wish for you all to have a coworker like this. To know that just next door or down the hall, there is someone who is in your corner, who wants to share her homemade soup with you, and would take in your students in a moment’s notice if you had to suddenly leave. I hope you have someone like her to enjoy the little things, like the new mug from TJ Maxx, or a photo from the weekend. Her one-liners are true—— “Everyone looks good in navy blue.” And, “When in doubt, wear pearls.”
Nothing could be sweeter than in her last year of teaching, she has my son in her classroom. He adores her like I do, and has experienced all her “lasts” with her. She is not just co-worker, but friend, confidante, and Mother Hen when I need her to be. Some years from now, when I look back on my teaching career, it will be relationships that will have mattered most. Marji will be at the top of that list, for all the little moments in the faculty room, at the copy machine, around a conference room table, and at the recess bench have all added up to be one of the greatest friendships I will ever know.
Let’s just say, I will be savoring the remainder of this school year. Come fall, our hallway will feel quite different without my teacher bestie. The best is yet to come for, you, Marji—grandbabies, a son’s wedding, extended summer and eternal weekends (And maybe, just maybe, that means a few more apple dumplings for me. 😁)
