RIP Mme. Irey

I was incredibly saddened to learn that my high school French teacher, Mme Irey, passed away in September of this year from a form of brain cancer. In the last decade I've spent a fair amount of time in Europe, and every trip to France I've been able to showcase my relative fluency in French, thanks to the incredible teaching skills of Mme Irey. I'd been intending to track her down and re-connect, and only recently found out that she'd passed away. I had never thought that time would be a factor... she went to high school with my mom in Wheaton, so I assumed she had decades left. I think the lesson here is that you shouldn't wait to reconnect with people who mean a lot to you... do it now.

As odd as it seems, I was able to find a lot of information on Mme using Facebook. I've actually been reconnecting with all sorts of people on there, people I first met nearly 20 years ago. It's been pretty incredible. But there's a Facebook group praying for Mme's health... check it out and pay your respects, if you knew her.

The following is the post I put on that page... I guess it's a sort of farewell/tribute to Mme. It's nothing special... but she meant a lot to me so I want to share this on here, as well.

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Oh Madame... for years I'd been planning to track you down and tell you
all the great stories of my travels in France, and how even after all
these years I was able to speak fluently, thanks to 3 years with you. I
thought of you every time I did it... whether I was arguing with a
conductor on a train in Lyon, or chatting it up with a random hotel
owner in Marseilles. I'm so so so sorry that you've left us... we'll
all miss you terribly.

Je suis sur que vous etes dans une
meilleure place, madame. Il faut que tout de nous y allions,
eventuellement. [mon dieu! le subjonctif!!]

I'd play one more
game of Taxi, Taxi in your honor... if only I could remember the rules.
=P I always looked forward to French... We had so much fun coming up
with totally random names... with our trip to France (il faut penser au
group!!!!)... with Robert et Mireille... so many awesome memories.

A bien tot, madame... vous nous manquez pour toujours.
L'ombre de la Dreche Invisible ('94)

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