Hello C.W. ,
You probably don’t remember me. I know you met so many of Virginia’s counselor friends over the years. You and I had a sweet conversation a few years ago when you came to one of our regional meetings and motivated us with your wonderful words. Virginia is the reason I became president of the Southwest Region later on. She said it was time for some of us “young’uns” to step up and said she’d help me. And she did. I told her I wanted to be just like her when I grow up. She laughed and of course, told me I was perfect just the way I was.
I love your wife so very much. I still have cards and e-mails from her. They were always so uplifting, I couldn’t bear to part with them. Just Thursday, we talked by e-mail about the passing of Dr. William Glasser. She said she had admired and used his counseling techniques often. It’s still unbelievable to me that just a short time later, she was probably able to tell him that herself. School counselors all over the state love Virginia. I know the grief we all feel today cannot compare to that of her family, but I want you to know we are crying with you. She is one of the most wonderful souls I have ever met. I will always speak of her in the present tense. I know her new address, and I believe she is more alive now than she has ever been.
This e-mail is just one of so many you will get from hundreds of people she touched while she was here. Her heart may have stopped this weekend, but that is the ONLY day in her life her “heart” wasn’t working. Her spirit was undeniable. I know God is preparing a place for us all and I like to think of Heaven as one big, beautiful construction site. You know how you get to a point in a process where you need a certain person? God can afford the best and only the best will do for Him. He must have gotten to a place where He needed a person like her, and no one but Virginia would do for the job He has. From the day she was knit in her mother’s womb, God knew this moment would come. He knew every hair on her beautiful head. I will always be grateful to Him that she had no sickness, no suffering. She deserved that more than anyone I know. Most of all, Virginia could go to Heaven never having to worry that her friends and family might not know how she felt about them. Because there again, her heart was ALWAYS at work and it radiated love. Her eyes… I will never forget the kindness in those eyes.
C.W., on behalf of the Arkansas School Counseling Association, please know we are all so sorry her family is hurting. If only we could have seen her face when she saw Jesus and said “hello to the halo” she earned, this ache might not be quite so sharp. I can’t imagine the jewels in her crown, and I cannot wait to see her again.
Denise Rogers, MSE, NBCT