Sadness

I found out yesterday that one of my favorite profs from university died this week. It made me unexpectedly sad. Unexpectedly, I suppose, partially because I knew she had cancer and didn't have long to live, but mostly because I haven't kept in touch with her, so it doesn't really change anything about my daily life that she's gone. But even while I knew she was dying, I never saw her sick...

The last time I saw her she was still flitting around the front of my English classroom, talking 500 words a minute about the "powerful feeling" of the romantic writers and the marriage foils in Pride and Prejudice and leaving all of us as full as if we'd just sat through three or four lecture/discussions instead of only one.

That last day I saw her, she stopped near the end of class, announced she had cancer and probably not too long to live, told us she'd found a great substitute prof so we would still be very taken care of in our studies, and left the room before any of us (or she) could get all emotional. That was almost two years ago.

The last I'd heard, she and her husband were skiing in the Alps, and she was still running around and being all crazyily and energetically herself-ish.

And now I hear that she died, and somehow--even though I knew it was coming--it doesn't seem to be possible that she's not scaring and inspiring and enlightening the next batch of students. It is a great comfort to know that she is finally at peace, and no longer ravaged by cancer, and that she and her grieving husband and so many of her friends and students are ultimately united in the eternal body of Christ. But it's still just sort of sad.