Judy Kirby is a great music teacher at Western Avenue Elementary School in Flossmoor, Illinois. Over the career span of 35 years, Judy taught thousands of students to use their voice and helped them feel the joy of singing and of music.
During her wonderful work, she left a lasting impact on so many kids. They love her, and some of her former students even consider her as their musical mother.
“She’s my musical mother, that’s how I feel about her,” former student Rev. Daryce Hoff Nolan said. “I was 10 and it was her first teaching job; she’ll never let go of me, just like a mom.”
For this reason, when the former students learned that Judy was ill and didn’t have much time left to live, they decided to do something for her the same way she did for them.
They started showing up outside window at her care facility to sing to her one last time. They wanted to comfort her, made her feel happy, and filled her heart with music and love before she left this world and went to the heaven.
Other students who couldn’t be there in person sent videos of themselves singing the songs she taught them when they were children. All her students sang the song she taught them to sing as they graduated to the next phase of their lives.
“There has been such an outpouring of love, the reach is all over the world,” her friend Terry Debruin said. “Some of the students who sent in videos singing to her were from California, New York…all over.”
Watch the touching video below:
According to Judy’s family, she left this world peacefully on August 7. Although she passed away in isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, her family said she was not alone as her heart was filled with music and love in her final days.
“I can’t think of anybody who deserves it more than her,” student Daryce Hoff Nolan said.
What a touching story! If you love this heartwarming post, please share it with your friends and family members to warm up their day!
Source: Little Things