The day after

Yesterday I got to tell the kids about Vicky's death. I thought it would come as a shock to them or I was sort of expecting confusing reactions from them, but the only comments I heard were these. "I know how to say 'dead' in Dutch!" and, "Did she die in a car?", bless their hearts. I guess I'm relieved that the news didn't really hit them too hard, or perhaps they just don't really understand, which is ok. Then we talked about where to put Vicky's leaf and some wanted it on the cloud, some on the sun, I wanted it on the rainbow so it would stand out and all agreed except this little girl what wanted it on the cloud, so... I just told her that if it was on a cloud, it might be blown away by the wind... and she didn't think that was good. So... she's on the rainbow. I don't know how long we'll have her there, but I think it's good for some time in case they have questions and want to know more about it. Today they made some drawings for her. On Saturday there will be a ceremony for Vicky, and she wanted the kids to make a lot of drawings for her. Most of them wanted to make rainbows, or rainbow spaghetti. I still find all of this very bizarre and it's still very sad, but a mom made my day today when she told me that she wanted me to know that she was really impressed with our work with the kids. She can see a very big change in an autistic boy we have in class. She mentioned how before he would bump into her and not really realize it, but now he is looking at her and smiling and just seems more 'there'. She is also happy about how her daughter is doing and told me that the girl really looked up to me. Joy!!! :D

I'm still working on Vicky's song. Now it's just called "Heavenly peace". I was thinking that if I can get it all ready I might sing in on Saturday. We are going to be planting a tree in Vicky's office. I don't know if I will, but I will pretend I will so I keep working on it.