A sad day

Sometimes teaching is really hard. Today is one of those days. No, it has nothing to do with getting back to the grind after a wonderful vacation. It's because of sad news from one of my students. Remember a while back I mentioned a girl in my class (11 years old) whose mother was gravely ill? Well, that girl's mother passed away yesterday. Obviously she's not in school today and I'm not sure when she'll be back. At this point in the day (about 10:30 A.M.) the rest of the class does not know (we'll tell them at the end of the day). Please pray this girl, her family, my students and me as we deal with this tragic loss. In 24 years of teaching, this is the first time I've ever had a parent of a student pass away. This is new territory for me and it's going to be difficult.