Member-only story
The Lasting Legacy of Personal Notes
Paying tribute to the woman who wrote them
Colleague, Teacher, Note-writer
The text came quietly, without drama, stating a fact.
“Joyce died.”
Joyce was a respected former English teacher at the local high school. I only knew her years after, when she was retired from the public schools and teaching part-time at the community college where I taught full-time. Our time together consisted of an occasional half-hour at the shared lunch table, some short conversations during department meetings, and frequent smiles and small-talk as we passed in the halls or met in the mailroom.
I knew little about her other than she was always pleasant, a little reserved, and had a dry wit and keen mind that showed when we talked.
I had not seen her for twenty years, but I was hit by a sense of loss by the death of this 86-year-old former colleague. While we didn’t socialize and weren’t close friends, Joyce touched my soul by writing me dozens and dozens of personal notes.
When I was teaching at the college, I was also a columnist for the local paper. For more than a decade, I chronicled details of family, community, and current events. I wrote about books and students and observations of the world at…
