There will never be another Rita.

My first memories of the Orchard elementary teacher are from 2008, when I filled in during maternity leave for Kortney Sayers. Rita Shabram was one of the first people to welcome me. We’d stop to chitchat when we had a few moments. Occasionally, our lunch times would overlap and we’d talk about education and current events.

The best times, though, were after school, when we’d venture to one another’s classrooms and spend an hour or two, talking about and bonding over faith and life and family.

After I left education and began working for the newspaper, we’d se...