My girls are in first and sixth grade.

They have two amazing teachers that I love dearly and will always hold a special place in my heart.

This week is teacher appreciation week and most teachers are getting thanked for all they do to help educate their students. My daughters’ teachers did more this year than just teach common core standards, they taught my daughters’ friends how to grieve, how to love and how to celebrate the small details of one’s life.

My girls were just two months into the school year when they went to Heaven. Their teachers were just getting to know them.

My girls went to Heaven on a Sunday night and on Monday morning their teachers went to school and started the greatest lesson that any of their students would ever get.

They taught their class how to grieve in a way that celebrates life. They answered hard questions that no college degree or teaching exam ever prepared them for; they did this with compassion and love, all while having to still teach the common core.

They allowed the kids to write notes, share stories, cry, laugh and celebrate the life that my girls lead.

They allowed a grieving mother to come and spend time in their classroom and get to know her daughters’ friends. They allowed her to teach them, give them high fives, hug them, play with them and share stories with them all in the hope to keep some connection to the friends her daughters left behind.

I’ve been in my daughters’ classrooms and I am impressed by what I see. For me, as a mom whose always been involved in her daughter’s education and as a teacher herself, I am in awe of how these two women have created a classroom full of love, support and learning, all in the midst of grief. They have been these children’s greatest example of how to love, live and remember those who have left us way to soon.

The lessons my daughters’ teachers taught this year are lessons that their students will reflect back on, grow from and will take with them long into adulthood. They are lessons you can’t write lesson plans for, or be evaluated by administrators, but are real life situations that prepare kids for a future with hope despite uncertainty.

Kris and Deb I appreciate you, love you and can’t thank you enough for all you have done to help my daughters’ friends get through this year. You are both amazing women and I am blessed to call you my daughters’ teachers and my friends.