"That's What I Like About You"

This post is #64 in a year-long series ... Through this series of posts I plan to share our family's experiences during our 17-year-old daughter's year-long battle with brain cancer, which began in February of 2008. My desire is to process through the events of that year from the perspective that a decade of time has brought ... for myself, really. But if you'd like to follow along, you're welcome to join me.

After Hannah went to Heaven, one of the more difficult tasks we had to face was cleaning out her locker.  Thankfully, because Brad was Hannah's high school principal and had a key to the school, the three of us were able to go after hours to accomplish this dreaded chore.

Her locker was packed with schoolbooks, notebooks, binders, and papers.  All of her binders were neatly labeled, with little dividers between every subject ... a girl after my own heart!  It was a treasure trove of reminders of just what a special person she was, and the evening wasn't as hard as I was afraid it would be.

One of my favorite things I found among her things was a half-sheet of paper titled "That's What I Like About You."  It appears as though one of her teachers gave the class an assignment to write something they liked about each one of their classmates. Then he or she compiled the lists and gave them to each student.  It was undated, but I suspect it was written before her cancer diagnosis because of the references to her hair.  As I read through the list that Hannah's classmates made to describe her, I couldn't help but smile.  Here is the list verbatim ...

"That's What I Like About You"

• I like your shoes
• I love your hair
• You are smart
• Pants
• You're pretty and smart
• Smart
• Nice
• Pretty, smart, good person
• Hair
• Sweet girl, pretty, good manager (she was the manager of the basketball team)
• Smart and intelligent
• Shoes
• Shoes
• Really smart, good friend
• Nice and really good friend
• Sweet, smart
• Awesome shoes!
• Good person to talk to

The girl's shoe game was strong!  And her classmates clearly viewed her as smart, which I'm sure pleased her to no end.  But what really warmed my heart are the references to her as a good person and a good friend.  She continues to make me proud.