"A teacher affects eternity; she can never tell where her influence stops." ~Henry Brooks Adams

We've all had one. A teacher who is more than just a teacher. For me, that one was Billie Jordan. I remember feeling loved by her from the moment I walked into her 2nd-grade classroom at Pine Tree Elementary School back in the fall of 1973. We were her first class of students, and the young, energetic, enthusiastic Mrs. Jordan made learning fun.

Apparently, Tracy (in its various spellings) was a popular name the year I was born, and four of us with that moniker landed in Mrs. Jordan's 2nd-grade class together. In order to easily distinguish us and avoid confusion, Mrs. Jordan announced on the first day of school that she would be calling  us by our last names. From that day forward, we were Meadows, Hinson, Smith, and Moore - names we continued to call each other for the next 10 years of school.

Mrs. Jordan cared deeply for her students. The summer after leaving her 2nd-grade classroom, I had surgery on my hand in a neighboring town. It was an hour's drive one-way, but Mrs. Jordan drove to visit me in the hospital. To an 8-year-old little girl, that made an impression. What made an even bigger impression was how she did the same thing the following summer, when after 3rd grade I had the second part of that surgery.

I can't really put my finger on a specific thing Mrs. Jordan did in 2nd grade to earn the place in my heart as my favorite teacher ever, because it wasn't just one thing. It was how every day she loved, and taught, and cherished us all - her kids - in her classroom. Mrs. Jordan gave me the only paddling I ever got in school. It happened one day as we lined up to go to the library, and she asked us not to talk. Evidently, Hinson and I had something very important to discuss, so we ignored Mrs. Jordan's instructions. She pulled us both out of line and gave us each one whack with her paddle. I had always wanted to please her, and that broke my little 2nd grade heart!

After moving on to 3rd grade and beyond, I would take every opportunity in elementary school to go by and visit Mrs. Jordan - sometimes after school on the way to the bus, or maybe before school if I arrived early. She would always ask about my life, my current teacher, my family, and even my pets. She always acted as though she had been waiting for me to return, and she was so glad to see me. But I eventually left elementary school, and my interactions with Mrs. Jordan became less.

In 1986, tragedy struck Billie Jordan's life. Shortly before Christmas that year, her husband's parents were returning her two young children home from a visit when they were involved in an automobile accident. All four of them - Billie's in-laws and both of her children (a son who was 10 and a daughter who was 5) were killed instantly. I cannot even begin to imagine enduring such grief. Billie did so with such grace and faith. God blessed her and her husband with two daughters in the years that followed, and a Facebook post by Billie in 2012 summed up her attitude about enduring such tremendous loss. She wrote, "To lose a child is the most devastating thing that can happen to a parent, but to lose a child during the holiday season multiplies that fact a thousand times over. I so vividly remember, there were little packages under our tree... daily, things came in the mail we had ordered... and a little flag Ashley had made and put on her door in a five-year-old's handwriting, 'SANTA, I HAVE BEEN VERY GOOD!'  Brent's Christmas list setting beside his bed listing the things he was going to buy each of his friends... I will never fully understand why things like this happen, but I believe with all my heart that God has a plan... Every single moment of every single day I am in awe of how out of such tragedy could come such blessings. There are so many things I do not understand, but I do know our God is an awesome God."

The following year I became engaged.  Needing someone to help me plan and organize my wedding that was scheduled for January 2, 1988, I called my old 2nd-grade-teacher. She was excited and happy to help me with that - she told me it would be a nice distraction during the painful holiday season. I treasure the memories I have of running wedding errands with Mrs. Jordan. She kept telling me to call her "Billie," but that was a hard transition to make. We had a lot of laughs through that time, but also a lot of serious conversations about love, and life, and serving God through it all.  Billie single-handedly kept things running smoothly on my wedding day. I was sick with bronchitis and laryngitis that day, and I felt awful. But Billie was there constantly cueing me to smile, or walking up behind me with wisdom like, "Enjoy this - it only happens once!"

Billie Jordan passed from this life yesterday. We had kept up with each other through Facebook, but I had not seen her in many years. Even so, when I heard of her passing, I felt such sadness. Because of Mrs. Jordan, a little girl who dealt with the insecurities of childhood felt loved and special in a public school classroom. She taught me to love learning, that education was something to get excited about, and that a teacher can have a major impact for good in a child's life, extending even beyond the classroom. And through her great tragedy, Billie exemplified how to handle unspeakable grief with a deep trust in God, and that sometimes the way to get outside of that grief is by reaching out to help others. I loved Billie Jordan. And I know countless others like me loved her, too. She was special, and this world is less without her in it.  How blessed I was to have been one of those who was loved by her.