March 19, 2024

Family, friends remember longtime teacher at memorial service

‘This was home for her’

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Theresa Comer can’t help herself. Even though she knows it won’t be there, every time she drives by Thomas Jefferson Elementary she looks for her mother, Lenette Swanson’s car.

Swanson, who taught at Thomas Jefferson for 24 years passed away from cancer this spring, but her memory lives on at the school where she taught third grade for so many years. On Monday, friends, family and coworkers gathered to plant a tree in her honor, place a memorial stone at the school and to celebrate the impact her life had on so many others.

“This was kind of home for her,” Trisca Mick, the principal at Thomas Jefferson said.

Mick and Swanson taught together for years, and when Swanson’s children approached her about putting a memorial for their mother at the school, she was glad to help. Family members covered the cost of the tree, an Autumn Blaze Maple, and planted it alongside a marker in front of the school.

“We’re just going to take care of it and enjoy it,” Mick said. “I’m glad we did this, and I’m glad that I got to be a part of it.”

Thomas Jefferson Elementary had always been a central part of Swanson’s life. Her husband, Doug went to school there, and so did all three of Swanson’s children. Living just across the highway the Swanson kids were used to spending time at Thomas Jefferson, helping their mom put together bulletin boards and grade assignments.

“We knew we had to do something with the school; she brought teaching to every part of her life,” Comer said. “The people here, it was a family.”

It was the day before teachers were due to report back at the start of the 2014-2015 school year that Swanson got the diagnosis. What she’d believed was a stomach ulcer was stage 4 stomach cancer. Initially, she took a year-long sabbatical to fight the disease, planning to be back in time for the start of the next school year. For two years and nine months, she fought the cancer, enduring 49 chemotherapy treatments without complaint.

“She never complained once, a lot of the time she was just miserable, but her family was always her concern,” Comer said.

The cancer was a surprise to everyone, including Swanson. Over the years she’d built up more than a 100 days of sick time, never wanting to miss a day at the school. Everywhere she went in Newton, she’d run into former students, who were always amazed to find out that their third-grade teacher still remembered their name.

On Monday, as each of Swanson’s children and grandchildren untied a blue balloon from the tree to release into the sky they shared their memories with each other. The balloons were blue, because that was her favorite color. Swanson’s children picked a tree with vibrant fall colors, because that was their mom’s favorite season.

“We took a fall trip as a family every year, and once they said something about the colors that kind of sealed the deal for us,” Comer said. “It’s nice to have the tree here, we’ve all got young kids, we want to come back every year and take a picture with the kids, to see them grow and to see the tree grow.”

Contact David Dolmage at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or ddolmage@newtondailynews.com