Bonnie

What most people don't realize about teachers, they have an entire team of people behind the scenes supporting them, allowing them to do their job. When it is Open House, Family Fun Night, Teacher Workshop Days, Conference Nights, and more, when the teacher is at school working, someone needs to be home, helping with the family. There are other details of support families provide. All the locker tags, desk tags, cubby tags, and more are all laminated, and thankfully for Ms. Leom, these are all trimmed by Ms. Leom's mom, her mom's best friend, and her grandma. For some teachers, they have spouses who also help out. In our household, Mr. Leom also teaches and has similar responsibilities of time, and family matters.

This is a recent picture of Ms. Leom's family. Her dad, Hilary, is a Viet Nam Veteran. Her daughter Hilary was able to have her picture taken with our guests at the recent Veterans Day Program in the high school in mid-November. Bonnie is her mom's best friend. Jan is Ms. Leom's mom. Bonnie never married or had children. She adopted our family, and we adopted her.

When Ms. Leom has Open House, her mom and her mom's best friend brought her kids and met all the teachers, unpacked backpacks, stood inline for pictures, and all the details families do.

2011

On Thursday November 15th, Bonnie passed away. It was sudden, and Ms. Leom found out about it at the end of the school day, before conferences. It was mind boggling. The Tuesday night before, Bonnie and Grandma Jan were in Milaca, feeding her kids supper and playing games, so Ms. and Mr. Leom could be at conferences, and two days later, she had passed.

This was a special person who impacted your child's learning in ways that were behind the scenes and mattered.