Hello readers!

I’m back with this week’s edition of What’s Up in Odenville.

Every week I attempt to entertain you with my humor and wit, but this week is melancholy as our community is in mourning over the loss of Odenville Intermediate School’s beloved principal Constance Meyers Seymour.

Constance was known and loved by everyone who knew her. I don’t say this lightly or in exaggeration. I say this because I KNOW this to be true.

Constance was one of the first people I met when I moved to our small town 14 years ago. She hugged me like she had known me forever, which made feel welcome and accepted. (My husband had grown up here and knew EVERYONE. I did not. I was a transplant and referred to as “Marlon’s wife”). Every time I saw Constance she hugged me the same way. Her smile was 1,000-watt and permanently in place.

Even when she was diagnosed with cancer, she kept that smile and charged on. The last time I saw Constance was last year before she lost her hair and she was eating dinner with her boys. She had been through so much and was no longer working. She smiled when she saw me and I sat and talked with her for a while. She said, “Trese, I love reading your articles. You are so funny, you make me smile and I look forward to each week when I can read a new one”.

Wow. She made everyone smile; being around her was like walking into sunshine, but I made HER smile. See? That’s what I’m trying to convey is that no matter what she was going through, she would make others feel important. With friends, employees and especially the kids passing through her school. EVERYONE. If you were in front of her, in that moment YOU were her focus.

If you ever had a question about her legacy, all you had to do was be there during her visitation. I, along with half the county, went to pay my respects. I hugged her parents and brothers and when I got to her son Evan, he hugged me so tight and held on for dear life and said, “I love you”. For one split second it was like hugging Constance.

My heart is broken because of the knowledge I will never get another hug or see her beautiful smile, yet overflowing for having the privilege to know her and call her my friend.

Thank you Constance for making our world brighter just by being in it. Until we meet again…