Nanci Campbell:  

I wrote the profile below in 2019. Since that time, we had two COVID years. Ugh. DPS had online school for the remainder of the 2020 school year and the first semester of the fall of 2020. It was a trying time for teachers and students alike. Something none of us could have expected. It was quite something to work from home and see students on a computer screen every day! I had thought of retiring from DPS in May 2021, but my life took an unexpected turn. My husband, Joe, suddenly and unexpectedly died in March 2021 of a pulmonary embolism. We had been married almost 46 years. We had been together since November 1973, my senior year at Arapahoe. (My friend, Sue Wehrly, introduced me to Joe. At that time, she was dating a friend of his.) I took a leave for the remainder of the school year; and then chose not to retire. There is a deep silence that takes over your soul when your spouse dies. Lonely is not a strong enough word. There’s no silence as sad or deafening as an empty house. Every. Single. Thing. Changed. I was handed a new life I never asked for and didn’t want. I’ve had to refocus my life, the future I saw together with him to continue working for good. To honor his life. To live for both of us. Post traumatic growth. Taking what almost destroyed me and finding meaning and a purpose in living again; making creative use of the hurt, the excruciating pain. To choose joy! Grief is truly an ongoing process and life journey. So, I'm still teaching (my 36th year with DPS) and trying to find new meaning and purpose in a life without Joe, Life is moving forward! My family has helped hold me up, as well as friends, my church family and my faith! After watching our sons play th...Expand for more