Farewell, Shelly

The following is a story I passed on to the family of Shelly Courington, who was a former teacher at my son's school. She passed away this weekend after a long battle with a very rare, and ultimately untreatable, form of ovarian cancer. She was 42 and leaves behind her husband and three kids.

I knew Shelly as Ms. Shelly, an assistant at DCS Montessori School. The school has an annual fundraising silent/live auction and Shelly donated a "Day at the Zoo" with her. I bid on the item because my son (who must have been 4 or 5 at the time) loved the zoo. He had been to both the Denver and Colorado Springs zoos on numerous occasions. Shelly took him and one of his school friends as well as her son to the Denver Zoo. It must have been a magical day because our son returned as if this was his first trip to the zoo; he discovered so much and was filled with stories. Plus he is normally quite shy and reserved at the start but it was apparent that he had felt comfortable with Shelly instantly. Shelly memorialized the day for him with a little picture album filled with various animals, interspersed with pictures of him sporting the biggest smile ever. In fact, I think the picture of her (see above), used on Shell's Bells Run website may have been from that day at the zoo.

Clearly she could leave an indelible impression on anyone, no matter what the age. Her kindness will be greatly missed.