Mr. Greenslade

While I was looking through the documents I have saved on the computer I came across this poem. It is from grade six, when my teacher was Mr. Greenslade. If I remember correctly, he died from cancer. It was within the first month of school. It was odd, I think, for us as students. I mean, nobody really loves their teacher, especially not within the first month when you don't really know them.  But from what I remember he was going to be a great teacher. He had these things called "GreenBucks".  You were awarded them if you did well on a test or helped someone out. Then you could trade them in for a prize. But that wasn't the reason he was going to be great (that was a bonus). He smiled a lot and cared for you and just seemed like a good person. I remember my one friend was the only one crying. The principal was the one who told us he had passed away. He pointed her out and said something along the lines of, "Some of you knew him better than others. Did you spend more time with him?" referring to my friend. She looked up and around at other people, confused, as if she wasn't sure he was talking to her. Nobody really had spent a lot of time with Mr. Greenslade. She was just the only one brave enough to cry for him. I remember that I didn't cry. I teared up a bit. But I just didn't know him well enough and honestly, I was just confused and lost and unsure of what to do.  Anyways, our replacement teacher (who has since stayed at Clara Brenton and taught my siblings) decided we should write a poem and give it to the Greenslade family. So we did, and this is it:

If We Could Bring You Back Again

Written by Fred Longley

In Honour of John Greenslade

If we could bring you back again,

For one more hour or a day

We’d tell you all our favourite thoughts,

We’d have many things to say.

If we could bring you back again,

We’d say we admired you,

 And that your time in our lives

 Meant more than we ever knew.

If we could bring you back again

To tell you what we should,

You’d know how much we missed you now,

And if we could, we would.