In Memory of Mrs. Nancy Morris

On Friday, April 17, Mrs. Nancy Morris went home to be with the Lord. A couple of years ago she was diagnosed with a form of cancer that could not be beaten, and she knew that. While they were able to treat it and extend her life here on earth for a few years, they were not able to beat it back into remission and remove it from her body.

Many, outside the world of Mt. Calvary, will not know Mrs. Morris. She was an elementary school teacher at Mt. Calvary Christian School in Elizabethtown, PA for several years and then she served as the elementary school principal for many more years. She served as my 2nd grade teacher. She was serving as the elementary school principal for my 2 oldest boys until her retirement at the end of the 2007-08 school year, so they had a chance to get to know her, too.

Robert and Nancy Morris did not have any children of their own, so she treated all of the students as her kids. She took an interest in them. She cared about them. She wanted to see them succeed. She was proud of them. She was everything that a parent could want in someone that teaches their children. You knew that your children were being taught properly when Mrs. Morris was teaching them. You knew that the teacher had a legitimate care and concern for your children.

For Mrs. Morris, teaching was not just a job. It was not just a way to earn a living or collect a paycheck. Rather, it was what God had called her to do. She took great joy in teaching children and watching them learn. She wanted to see the kids grow, whether physically, educationally, emotionally, and spiritually. That is what made teaching worthwhile to her. In fact, it was under her teaching that I made a reassurance of my own salvation.

From a student’s standpoint, I could see that she enjoyed what she was doing. I realize it was close to 30 years ago that she served as my teacher, but I can still remember her teaching with a zeal and enthusiasm that was real. She was excited about teaching, which made me want to learn. If the teacher was excited about it, then I, too, should be excited about it.

When my wife and I were looking at different Christian schools for our kids to attend, we attended and open house at Mt. Calvary. Mrs. Morris was at the information table that day. While she did not immediately recognize me (as I have very few similarities now to my 2nd grade appearance), once I introduced myself, she immediately remembered me. But it was not just a remembering of my name. Rather, she remembered things that only a teacher could remember. She remembered my parent’s names. She remembered my brothers’ names. What I was impressed with is that she remembered me. I was only one of many hundreds of students that she had taught over the years while she was a teacher. I was not just a name to her. Neither was any other student she had taught over the years.

As the principal, she was not teaching classes, but she still knew the names of the students at the school. As the principal, she wanted the students to know who she was, which was understandable. But more than that, she wanted to know them. She did not want her familiarity with the students to end with just knowing their names. She wanted them to know that she cared, that she was there to help. With Mrs. Morris, you were not merely a number or a name. You were a real person.

Mrs. Morris was a humble person. She did not seek attention for herself because of the position the she held. When she was first diagnosed with cancer and undergoing treatment, she would deflect from the attention she was getting due to this disease and want to know how you were doing. In conversations with her, she was more interested in you and what you were doing and how you were doing. She did not care to talk about herself. To her, life was about what she was doing for others, not what others were doing for her.

Physically, she was an unimposing figure. She was maybe 5’ tall on a good day (while standing on her toes). There was nothing about her, physically, that stood out. Rather, it was her character, her tremendous interest in those that she taught, and her love for her job, that stood out and make her larger than life to me. While diminutive in stature, her legacy looms large over the hearts of those that had the privilege of knowing her. She left tremendously large shoes to fill.

How can her life be summed up? That is hard to do. How can you encapsulate the life of someone who touched so many lives into just a few phrases. I think it can be summed up best, in words similar to those that the Apostle Paul wrote toward the end of his life: A fight well fought, a course well run, a faith well kept, a life lived right, a job well done, a crown well won.