Ryan's early eulogy

This comment was left on our blog yesterday. The note brought me to tears, and I was a blubbering lunatic when I read it outloud to Ryan. The girl who left this comment was one of Ryan's students when he taught Spanish at Indian Hills Middle School in Sandy, UT for 8 years.

Hello
I am a previous student of your husbands. A couple of months ago in a Sunday School class the teacher asked us to think of a teacher we have/had that was a positive influence. Immediately I thought of Mr. Ellefsen. He was always so funny. He made me laugh at a time in my life when life was rough, you see, I grew up in a family that wasn't the predominate religion, in fact they often spoke badly of LDS members and painted a bad picture for me (mormon's were crooks, liars, rude. They didn't like anyone that wasn't like them and they didn't befriend outsiders). I of course listened to my parents and believed much of what they told me. Mr. Ellefsen proved to be quite the opposite of these things (I realize he was a teacher and had to be considerate and nice to all students no matter what but I still knew he was not the things my parents had described to me. I remember one time when I was having a particularly bad day, that day Mr. Ellefsen wrote on one of my papers "remember who you are and what you stand for." I don't know why he wrote it or what made him write it but it had stuck with me forever since then - it has been my moto in life for many years - and it made me feel good on that day. To make a long story short after thinking of him - when asked who my most influential teacher was - and the positive influence he had on me in a tough time I had to find a way to get a hold of him and thank him. So thank you Mr. Ellefsen! I am now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and have a family of my own and hanging above our front door is the quote "remember who you are and what you stand for!!"

McCall