You Never Planned on the Bombs In the Sand

Mom's Fight for Burial Near Son Leads to New Law

The soldier in this story, Corey, was one of my students my first year teaching in middle school. He was funny, caring, a huge hockey fan (he deliberately wore a Buffalo Sabres sweatshirt to class during a Bruins/Sabres playoff series to provoke me), and a terrible writer. He used to check in with me, even after he wasn't my student, just to say hi, talk hockey, whatever was on his mind. Seeing his face all over the news this morning (and a bit last night, too) has been really hard. And seeing the state his mother is in is even harder.

When we decide to be teachers, we have all these grand ideals of working with kids, helping them reach their potential, become learners, thinkers, productive citizens. Military funerals, any type of funeral, really, never figure in to that equation. For every soldier that makes that sacrifice, not only is there family grieving and friends grieving, but a teacher grieving the student he or she once knew, remembering the child that forgot their homework, shared their artwork, talked about their home life, aced a test and celebrated, helped a friend on the playground.

So send a little light and love Corey's mother's way, and to our troops, and to the teachers who stand to the side at those funerals and grieve a child they lost, too.

Dress Blues - Jason Isbell

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