Dying Music Teacher Can No Longer Speak, Former Students Show Up To Sing One Final Time

Aug 22, 2020

Judy Kirby, a former music teacher at Western Avenue Elementary School, has taught many how to sing over the last 35 years. When her students from Flossmoor, Illinois, learned that she is on her deathbed and cannot speak, they decided to come to her side and fill her with songs, the same way she did for them many years earlier.

Judy was an elementary school music teacher for 35 years, during which she touched countless lives. WGN Chicago interviewed her students, and one of them describes her as "the reason there is a flame in my soul that tells me to sing." In a time when physical distancing is a must, some of her students showed up to her care facility window, and others sent recordings of themselves singing through laptops and cell phones. Rev Daryce Hoff Nolan, a student she taught on her first teaching job, was at her window singing a song called "Dear One." She says while holding back tears, that the song meant to thank teacher Judy for her love. She also sang another song whose lyrics said, "Who I loved, deeply loved, you are well-cherished garden."

"She is my musical mother," Rev Daryce told WGN Chicago, "I was ten, and it was her first teaching job, she never let go of me, just like a mom." The love for Judy came from all over the world, from New York to California.

Truly, good deeds do not go unrewarded, and the love that Judy is reaping is the same love that she planted in the hearts of her students. Judy was dedicated to her job and spent hours working with children. You would find her teaching them over lunch and even before or after school hours. Mrs. Kirby helped students find merry in their voices, and while at it, she also taught them instruments like the recorder. It is not a surprise that she organized 35 musicals, many Christmas concerts, and variety shows. She did not hold back anything and held her students' hands to the upper stage theatre.

From the snippets on the viral video, it is evident that Judy was a happy person. She is smiling in photos with friends and family and on the stage. Her friend Terry DeBruin describes her as "a caring and very dedicated person." She goes on to say, "There is no one like Judy." There was an outpouring of love during those last weeks, and many of her former elementary school students serenaded her to songs that she had once taught them. There could not be a better way to offer her a tribute than give back this heartfelt gift she once gave them. As the saying goes, when words fail, music comes in. Rev Daryce closes by saying, "I can't think of anyone who deserves it more than her."

Although WGN Chigago reports that, sadly, the beloved teacher passed away on August 7 in isolation, she was not alone; she died with a song in her heart. Her family and students could not hug and say their goodbyes physically, but they did it in the most fitting way. Mrs. Judy Kirby's life story is evidence that you do not need to move mountains to touch hearts. She changed lives and made many smiles while doing what she loved most. And even in her absence, she will live on in the music that she taught thousands.

This is such a heartwarming story that deserves to be passed on to others. Show this story to your friends and your family.