I was the last one to bless the coffin. As I stood there， one of the soldiers who had acted as a pall-bearer came up to me. “Were you Mark’s math teacher？” he asked. I nodded as I continued to stare at the coffin. “Mark talked about you a lot，” he said.
After the funeral， most of Mark’s former classmates headed to Chuck’s farmhouse for lunch. Mark’s mother and father were there， obviously waiting for me. “We want to show you something，” his father said， taking a wallet out of his pocket. “They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.
Opening the billfold， he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped， folded and refolded many times. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him. “Thank you so much for doing that，” Mark’s mother said， “As you can see， Mark treasured it.”
Mark’s classmates started to gather around us. Chuck smiled rather sheepishly and said， “I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.” John’s wife said， “John asked me to put his in our wedding album.” “I have mine， too，” Marilyn said， “It’s in my diary.” Then Vicki， another classmate， reached into her pocketbook， took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. “I carry this me at all times，” Vicki said without batting an eyelash， “I think we all saved our lists.”
That’s when I finally sat down cried. I cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.
我曾在明尼蘇達州莫裏斯市的聖瑪麗中學任教，我帶一個三年級班，班上有34名學生，我都很喜歡，而馬克·埃克隆是最特別的一個。他衣冠整潔，有點玩世不恭，偶爾的淘氣行為很招人喜歡。
馬克上課時經常說話。我一次次地提醒他，未經允許不能隨便講話。然而，我印象最深的是，每次我糾正他的不禮貌行為時，他總會真摯地回答，“修女，謝謝您的指教！”最初聽到這話時，我簡直不知所措，聽得多了，久而久之也就習慣了。