I regret to inform about the sad demise of our dearly beloved Sr. Sylvania our ex-principle and the present Manager of St. Mary's Convent School, Mapuca. She passed in the early house of today and I am sure she must be in arms of Jesus Christ and with all the Holy Angles by her side.
She was indeed one of the very few teachers who was loved and respected. She taught for many years and has left us students a lot of memories. She was my French teacher. Although some of us did not have her for a teacher, we feel that she was a great teacher who did not teach for a living and for money, but to be with the children and to actually TEACH. She was somewhat strict, but she was a wonderful teacher and adult. She respected students like an adult would respect another adult. We only wish she had more time to live, and that she had found out earlier about her illness. Life isn't always fair. We all leave, at one point in our lives, whether we be young or old. In Sr. Sylvania's case, she died not of old age, but of cancer. It just wasn't fair for her to die so young, when others of her age get to live for years after. Many others die of the same fate, cancer. Why did SHE have to die? She was the best teacher at our school. Why did one of our best teachers have to die? Life sometimes seems like nothing is ever fair. That's why Life is a journey, a perilous path to our death with lots of lessons on the way. Why?, we ask, why did Sr. Sylvania have to die? Life doesn't necessarily provide us with answers, so we must journey along and learn to cope with the facts. Sr. Sylvania will always be kept alive in our hearts. I know that all who knew her, as a friend and/or a teacher, will continue to keep her name alive. She was actively involved in the Social Action Forum of the Mapuca Parish Church and tried to help as many parishioners as she could. Let us all continue to follow in her footsteps with our main goal in life being: Helping our fellow man in any way we can, for that is, I believe, the greatest gift we can give in life. ARLETTE AZAVEDO
