By WECT Staff | February 3, 2021 at 6:42 PM EST – Updated February 3 at 7:26 PM
WHITEVILLE, N.C. (WECT) – Michele Williams, a teacher at Columbus Christian Academy, lost both of her sisters in the last year.
Her older sister, Jeanene Lee, died of an illness in June, and her younger sister, Wendy Fipps, lost her battle with Covid-19 in January. Like Williams, both sisters were educators.
“I just want to honor them in so many ways,” Williams said. “Little things that they had interest in that worked very successfully in their classroom, I want to try to bring a little bit of that into my room and just honor them the best way that I can.”
Fipps was a teacher at Edgewood Elementary School in Whiteville, just down the road from Columbus Christian Academy.
“I think they’re working on a little garden for her and different things but it’s been very difficult,” Williams said of the efforts to memorialize her sister at Edgewood.
Now, Williams hopes to honor their legacy and continues to teach her students in person despite the risks the virus presents.
“If my sisters were here they would want to be face-to-face with their students,” says Williams. “I think it’s so important, socially, for the students to be back in the school realm. Our students being able to be on campus has been tremendous, so many smiles, so many happy parents.”
Williams also says she hopes school teachers and staff can get access to the vaccine soon.
“For safety purposes in these classrooms—these children really want to hug us and come up and be so close—that is very vital,” says Williams.
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