Saturday, May 30, 2020
//s3.amazonaws.com/skins.funeraltechweb.com/tribute-gestures/v2/butterfly.png
My condolences to the Macdonald family. I am a former student of Mrs. Macdonald. She was my grade 8 homeroom teacher at D.A. Morrison junior high school in 1997-1998 class 82. I met my best friend of 23 years in her class. We have been trying to find Mrs. Macdonald for over a year so we could thank her for the profound positive influence she had had on our lives. We still talk about her as the best teacher ever 22 years later. My year in Mrs. Macdonald's class will always be the most cherished year of my life. Mrs. MacDonald was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. She commanded great respect from everyone. Even the "bad" kids behaved in her class. At the beginning of class when the students were chatting and not settling down, she never raised her voice. She just stood calmly at the front of the room with a slight smile her face until we qhieted down which we did soon enough. She brought out the best in all her students and fostered teamwork. That year our class won every single school contest. My best friend had the highest average in the school, and we had the most number of students with above 90 percent average. She brought out the best in all her students. She thought us about empathy, generosity, kindness, compassion. When a church burnt down in Toronto, she asked the class if we wanted to donate the 200 dollars we had been collecting for a school trip to the church or keep it for our trip. She let us decide. We as a class decided to donate the money. We were then featured on City TV news. A gentleman who owned a fleet of buses saw this on the news and offered to lend a bus to us for the day. We decided to go to Niagara Falls. We ended up going on a class trip in the end! Mrs Macdonald never judged anyone. I recall I was in a fight with one of the students in our science class. When I was returning to homeroom class, all I could think of was how disappointed Mrs. Macdonald would be. I was expecting the worst when I walked in through the door. She asked me to come to her desk and asked what happened. I told her. She smiled and asked me to go back to my seat. I never fought with anyone again. Mrs. Macdonald let us behave like the 13 year old kids that we were. She never expected us to be silent in class while doing work like many other teachers. This allowed us to work together as a team. Thank you Mrs. Macdonald for the best year of my life. You were an amazing human being. Your humanity is unmatched. You were patient, kind, understanding, a good listener. You led by example. The world needs more people like you. I love you and will always think of you. The gates of heaven are ready to receive you. Yours truly, Nahid Alam.
