Last night Spencer died.

He is the child of one of the teachers at my son's present and daughter's former school. His mother teaches there and has for about 15 years. His sister was in my daughter's class for 9 years.

Spencer was an energetic and high maintenance youngster. I remember looks exchanged between adults when as a kindergarten student he would be in the completely right place at not quite the completely right time. My own son reminds me of the young Spencer from time to time. Orange is the favorite color of both of them.

The weekend of Katrina Spencer got ill and was diagnosed with leukemia. The next week the family was at St. Jude's.

It has been a long journey through this illness for this family and for the family of folks at our school. The kids in his class have walked in cancer walks, shaved their heads, worn orange rubber Spencer bracelets, painted their faces with orange paint during field day, taken a 3 hour detour on their seventh grade trip to North Carolina so that they could visit him at St. Jude's and most of all the community has prayed. And prayed. And prayed.

I am relieved that his suffering is over. I am relieved that he died after school was out for the summer so that the kids can grieve privately instead of competitively. I pray that the kids don't give up on praying just because once again, Spencer is in the completely right place at not quite the completely right time.