Teacher was also cheerful and great lady

To the editor:

I read Mary Estes-Gieselmann's obituary and felt it needed so much more. I worked with Mary for several years at Hazelwood West High School. She was an incredible human being. She was an excellent teacher who took a group of students every year to Washington, D.C., as part of the Close-Up Program so they could see government in action and their nation's Capitol. She was the junior class sponsor and helped plan the prom each spring. Hazelwood School District was much the poorer at her leaving. She loved her church, her community and her family. Mary deeply cared about the treatment of animals and acted upon that concern time after time.

But Mary was so much more. She fought Crohn's disease all her life, and I never once heard her complain. Add cheerfulness, incredible courage, a wonderful sense of humor, a smile to brighten the darkest day and a deep faith in God that the injustices of the world could not shake.

She was a great lady, this Mary Estes-Gieselmann.

MONA PYATT

Florissant, Mo.