Handicapped Parking

     Every day I park in the teacher's parking lot behind a row of portables where my class room is located. I don't have an "A" block, which starts at 7:30, so I am never the first one here, arriving at approx. 7:50. I park my car and walk the 200 feet or so to the gate at the end of the parking lot that is locked so students don't come through our parking lot. It gives a small amount of security for us but the drive way gate is open so it is not completely locked up. Anyway...beside the point; I ramble.
     As I walk to the gate I walk across the Handicapped parking spaces (2 of them) that are nearest the gate. We used to have a teacher that would park there every day. Her name was Trishawna. Trishawna and I were hired into this school district on the same day. I was sent to Righetti High School and she was sent here, to Santa Maria High School. I didn't get to know her well until my second year teaching when I was also moved to Santa Maria High School. She was also an English teacher and her room was close enough to mine that I would see her at breaks in line for the bathroom and we struck up a friendship. We had dinner a couple of times and I visited her when she would be out of school. Trishawna had Sickle Cell Anemia, and was often out for a day or two to get blood transfusions. Last September she passed away in childbirth; leaving her husband of 8 years and a son: Dorian.
     She drove a brown sedan; I can't remember the make or model now but on the back window she had a sticker that read "Got Grace?"
     . Even though we weren't best friends and not long term friends I still miss Trishawna. A nice person, a strong woman; she would have been a loving and wonderful mother. Everyday I walk across that empty parking space and think of her. It's funny how some of the silliest things make such a big impression. A piece of asphalt marked in blue and memories of a friend.