Latresa Phillips
She ran over her purse with a school bus when she was taking said school bus out for the bus-drivers test.
She failed the test and didn’t get her bus license which meant she would be transferred from her position at Robbinsville High School Special Education to Robbinsville Middle School Special Education.
She was scared.
“What if they are mad at me because I had to swap jobs with the beloved assistant in middle school?”
“What if I don’t fit in?”
“What if they don’t like me?”
That is when she entered my life. We sat in a field of ragweed and huckleberry bushes on Huckleberry Knob on a field trip to the Hooper Bald, watching the students who were unable to hike to the top.
“I’m so happy you are in middle school. You are going to love it!,” I told her to ease the anxiety I knew she was feeling.
That is when she smiled that beautiful smile, blue eyes sparkling. Her smile lit up the field of ragweed and huckleberry bushes that day. Her smile lit a spark in my heart which only grew with time.
Beverly Camden did love middle school. She loved it with her whole heart. She came in each morning with that contagious smile and sprinkled sunshine though the halls of Robbinsville Middle School. She hugged students and encouraged them to do their best. She attended sporting events and cheered the teams on, congratulating, encouraging and sometimes sharing some pointers with the athletes.
She shared stories and jokes with the faculty and she was loved. Oh, how she was loved. Students loved her. Teachers adored her – that smile, that optimism, that wit. But as much as she loved Robbinsville Middle School, she could never love Robbinsville Middle School as much as Robbinsville Middle School loved her.
Through the years of new students, schedule changes, new teachers, standardized tests, field trips, lunch duties, and snow days, we bonded.
She hated cheese. I loved cheese. She was a Diet Coke chick. I was a Diet Pepsi chick, but we somehow managed to figure out all the insignificant details of life and celebrate a friendship that would last a lifetime.
During the darkest days of my life, a bright light would suddenly appear with tears in her eyes, an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on. She could always put a smile on my face. She loved me. She loved my family. We were family.
We were a part of something bigger than ourselves. Time passed by quickly and she reached the time for retirement.
I must say at this point that she knew she was sick. She would never have left Robbinsville Middle School if she hadn’t been sick. She knew it, but we didn’t. Looking back, I realize her life’s work was within the halls of the middle school. God had placed her there to be a mother to her students, a sister to her co-workers, and a light to all in the entire Graham County School System.
She retired in May 2022 and in June, she began a regimen of surgeries and treatments that would continue for the next year and a half. She never complained. She kept her smile – and her hair. She was so worried about losing her hair.
She kept her enthusiasm and her wit. She fulfilled her mission on Earth and on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, God took her home.
She touched so many lives. It wasn’t just the two of us – it was all of us. She loved each person in her school family and always found ways to bring us joy and encourage us during the tough times.
She allowed God to use her. She let His light shine through her life-always loving, always giving, always listening. Our lives are better because she was a part of us. Our futures are brighter knowing she went on ahead to make sure everything was just right for us when we get there.
She left us an example to love each other, spread happiness, live hard, love harder and complete the plans the Lord has given us; then fly, then rest, then receive your rewards for a life well spent.
We love you Beverly Ann Camden: until.
Latresa Phillips is a contributing writer for The Graham Star. She can be reached via email, latresaphillips@yahoo.com.