Tuesday, February 05, 2008


Joe is student of the week in his class this week. For his classroom, Joe, with Mom's help, prepared a poster filled with photos of the family and things important to him.

Today, Jack and Mom and I went to Joe's class to share in student of the week activities. We sat with the class and they asked Joe questions to learn more about him.



They asked him his favorite food, color, travel spot and movie. Someone asked Joe how many siblings he had, and your brother pointed to Jack, and that was that.

That made me pretty sad. It is understandable. You aren't on his radar, but it still can make me sad.

And then Joe was asked to point out his favorite pictures on the poster. He pointed to one of him playing baseball and to the one next to it, which was one of two photos with you.

"Yeah!" I thought.

When asked why those were his favorites, he explained that he loves playing baseball and he loves real baseball players. He was referring to Cal Ripken, who was sitting beside you.

That broke my heart a bit. Okay, a lot.

Then we went to the gym to play "Freeze Tag" which is what Joe chose as his special student of the week activity. Of course we passed by your plaque on the way there.

In my heart I kept wanting to shout, "Hey Joe, tell them about Henry, your brother Henry. You know, your older brother who loved you and who also had Mrs. Berliant as his teacher. He loved baseball just like you." But all that was something best to keep inside.

Jack didn't say anything. Mom didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. And that was right. It was fine. What mattered was Joe and his classmates had a great time.

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