Loss

 

Cindy and Kevin Willey

Cindy Ryan could have graduated from Central Catholic and gone straight to Hollywood to become a magazine cover girl. Tall, slender and beautiful, she was also sweet and gentle - as gorgeous on the inside as she was on the outside.

She did not race to Hollywood to become a  cover girl model. Instead, right after she graduated in 1981, she married Kevin Willey, another GICC graduate, who one day broke up a fight in my classroom and still remains one of the nicest kids I've ever taught.

They say you should never marry young, but Cindy and Kevin were as devoted to each other as any couple I've ever seen. They raised their three children - Jason, Giann and Katie - and sent them to Central Catholic to continue the family tradition. It wasn't long before they became young and vital grandparents to their growing brood.

Cindy was in her element and as happy as she'd ever been.

Then she was diagnosed with cancer. 

We were stunned to hear the news. Surely she'd beat it. Nothing would happen to our beautiful Cindy. Her parents and brothers Steve and Jeff drew close. Cheryl, her sister, rushed back to her little sister's bedside to take care of her for more than a month. But just a week ago Friday, Cindy passed at home surrounded by her family whom she was loathe to leave.

"It's all right to go, Cindy," Kevin whispered gently. And she did - as soon as her good husband gave her permission.

Only a couple of weeks before Cindy's death, my lovely sister Deb messaged to send her love.

Cindy wasn't afraid, she told Deb. She didn't want to leave her family, "but I know someday I'll see everybody I love most in Heaven," she assured Deb.

Kim Meyer, right, with son Wade
It's been a month of difficult loss for the Central Catholic faithful. My sweet friend and 1977 grad Kim Pfeifer Meyer lost her 33-year-old son Wade. Standing in a long line of mourners at Wade's wake, I watched Kim and the gracious way she greeted every one of those hundreds of people so generously. Kim was a high school senior at GICC when she lost her mom. Her husband Gus died only a little more than a year ago, and now she was burying a young son. You can never be around Kim, though, and think her life is difficult. She only ever exudes cheer and optimism - no matter what she's feeling on the inside.

Perhaps we should have been more prepared for the death of 41-year-old Bradley Czaplewski - or Bubba, as his family called him. The son of 1979 GICC graduate Sue Anderson Czaplewski and Brad Czaplewski, who was a wonderful religion teacher at Central Catholic, young Bradley was born with a genetic disorder which rendered him severely disabled all his life. His mother and father, with the support of Bubba's siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins, provided Bradley with around the clock care and adored him from beginning to end. His cousin Dani sang lullabies to Bubba when he was agitated and even offered one last lullaby at his funeral.

We have loved the Czaplewskis and their resolve to give young Bubba a happy life for so long. At the Rosary the night before his funeral, his siblings Scott, Heather and Carly wept, and his mother and father stood silently by his coffin to hold each other and sob over the loss of their precious son. Bubba was never a burden to them - only a miraculous gift in all the lives of the Czaplewskis.

Sue, Bradley (Bubba) and Brad Czaplewski

"We don't know quite what to do now," his father Brad said. The care of young Bradley had taken every second of the last 41 years, and they missed the constant, loving contact with their son.

These are sad times for all of us who love these families. What strikes me most, though, is their great fortitude and love - love that compels parents and spouses and brothers and sisters and cousins to slog through hell by the side of their precious ones and to finally deliver them up to the arms of Jesus.


As administrators and teachers and coaches, we hope for success for all our students. Perhaps more than anything, though, we wish for them to be the kind of people who would go to the ends of the earth for each other. 

And to hope with faith, as Cindy Willey did, that one day we will be in Heaven - with all the people we've loved most in the world.



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