REQUIEM FOR MY DEAR FRIEND JOHN
John Sheffield was my best friend, next to my husband, Larry. I met John when I began my career as English Department Head at Harrison High School, the flagship new school for Cobb County in Kennesaw, GA in 1991. John was Science Department Head. His left-brained classroom and Science lab was next door to my eclectic, right-brained classroom.
John died at his home, March 28, 2008. He was only 61 years old. Larry and I arrived at his home at noon that day to pick him up to come to the lake with us. He didn’t answer the doorbell. His car was parked in his carport. I looked through the kitchen window and noticed his laptop and cell phone on the table. After an hour of checking with neighbors, noticing that his mail had not been picked up, and failing to get a response, we called 911. Police and fire department personnel discovered him in his bed. John had succumbed to heart failure the night before.
John was born in Ozark, Alabama on November 15, 1946 to the late Bert & Frances Carroll Sheffield. John’s parents were only children, and he was an only child, so we welcomed him as part of our family. He spent holidays with us and loved planning and participating in activities with our family.
John and I were cohorts in angst as we worked diligently to blend the two feeder high schools, including a staff of teachers hired from GA and other states. We had an amazing talented principal, a visionary, who was a master at team building. But, on Fridays, we flew out of the building at 3:30 p.m. to meet other teachers for a well-deserved Happy Hour. We became a powerful support group for each other.
John managed to keep me out of trouble when I challenged the principal who told me I was setting the bar too high for these students. Using some Cajun gris gris and a lot of dialogue, I managed to convince him to trust me. That first year, our test scores beat every other school in the county.
In another incident, I was furious that a plebe, very young assistant principal who looked like Doogie Howser, had twenty student aides who were given walkie talkies to communicate with each other while department heads had to walk long stretches of hallways to get anywhere in this 2,000 student building. And walk in stilettos!
So I purchased 10 Strawberry Shortcake walkie talkies at Big Lots for the teachers in the English Department to communicate with each other. I was thrilled how well they worked.
My favorite custodian, who stuttered, asked me to check out the writing lab as he had seen two students "r-r-r-r-r-iding thhhhaaaattt trrrrain." I did not understand the idiom until I unlocked the door. They were all tangled up, and the room smelled like burning rope, to which the custodian responded, "P-p-p-p-p-o-t." My Strawberry Shortcake Walkie Talkie enabled me to summon another teacher who notified administrators. After that incident, students scattered when they saw me on duty, which made my job tremendously easy.
John tried to talk me out of using those Walkie Talkies, but I was determined to prove a point. I was caught when the County channels picked up my professional dialogue with another English teacher. Every school cop in the county was on the hunt for me. Fortunately, I was allowed to argue my case, and Walkie Talkies were distributed to Department heads the next week. I suppose it didn’t hurt my case that I called favors in on the other four principals who were my bosses when I served as Department head at other high schools.
John was my guardian angel at school. He calmed me down when my fiery temper erupted and saved me in countless department head meetings when I introduced viable but controversial agenda items. We collaborated about curriculum and joked about school personnel who were absolutely daffy, like the young science teacher whose pet Gila monster rode on her neck when she taught classes, and the English teacher who herded his 15 cats into his classroom for our first Open House for parents. I told him he'd better be discussing T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats upon which the musical CATS is based.
John attended Emory at Oxford and graduated from Emory University with a degree in Science and earned Masters and Specialist degrees from Georgia State University. A dedicated and beloved educator, John’s 36 year career in Cobb County Schools included 22 years at Campbell High School where he served as Science Department Head, sponsored National Honor Society and served on the state level of National Honor Society, and 14 years as Science Department Head at Harrison High School.
After retiring from Cobb County Schools, John was hired by Pearson Education to develop and present training workshops to Science and Language Arts teachers in the Southeastern region of the United States. He rose quickly in the ranks to become the most professional and knowledgeable consultant in the Southeast. He asked me to consult with him on his Language Arts presentations. I was amazed at his ability to develop amazing Language Arts presentations after spending his entire career teaching science.
John had incredible artistic abilities. A talented pianist, as a young man, John served as organist at First Baptist in his hometown of Ozark, AL. he loved to entertain friends at sing a longs. Attending Atlanta Symphony Orchestra events had a special significance for John.
As a teenager, John saved his allowance for a special Mother’s Day gift. He commissioned a local artist to paint his portrait and walked to town several times a week for months for sittings until the painting was completed. As an only child, the painting held special significance for his parents. John placed the portrait above the grand piano in this home.
At his funeral, John’s former college roommate received the portrait in John’s will. It was displayed near the coffin during the service. When I inquired about the portrait, I was told it was to be cremated with John’s body. I was livid! I offered to purchase it, to rescue it, to donate it to the church where John played organ, or to display it in my home, to no avail. That man has a bad, bad gris gris on himself. And the voodoo doll of him regularly gets stabbed with needles.
John’s appreciation of art and nature was evident in his collection of art, antiques, and in his beautifully landscaped back yard nature sanctuary. He filled his home with special artifacts and mementos of his world travels and had a great affinity for creating memorable dining experiences for friends and was developing a plan to participate in an antiques market in Marietta. Just before he died, he had his kitchen transformed to a chef’s kitchen so he could indulge in entertaining his friends at unique formal dinners.
John’s birthday is November 16th. I will be very sad. I plan to dig in the ground and plant a very special shrub in his honor so my children and grandchildren can stand around it and remember John at Thanksgiving in a few weeks.
Thanksgiving was very, very, sad last year as we stared at John’s empty chair. So I invited Theron, our server at IHop after mass every Friday morning, to join our family. He’s a single 25 year old whose family lives in North Carolina and IHop will not give him the morning off. He will join us at 1:00 for our family feast as I remind him what big shoes he has to fill.
