Rockford Public School's Big-hearted Gesture #AtoZChallenge

Bethany Chambers' mother, Melissa called her school one morning with a request - she was hoping they could give Bethany's diploma to her three months in advance. If the request was unusual, the reason behind it was heartbreaking.

Bethany's father, Bob Chambers' had received a bone marrow transplant for leukemia earlier but had now found that the transplant was rejected by his body. With no more medical options left, Bob took the hard decision of choosing quality over quantity and leaving the hospital to stay at home with his family for what little time he had. Bob had always been involved with his daughter's education and it was crushing her heart to think he would not live to see her hold her diploma.

"When I found out that he wasn't going to make it to my graduation, it was kind of crushing because him and I are best friends, so it was like I'm going miss out on all of this stuff that we're not going to be able to do together anymore," Bethany, 18, said.

On understanding the reason why, the authorities at Rockford Public School held a quick meeting and decided they would do one better. A few hours later, the superintendent called Melissa with a counter offer. "We are going to do a full graduation at your house. How does 7 pm tonight sound?"

Within hours, the school board arranged everything, getting Bethany a cap and gown and setting up a table with her diploma and academic award plaque in front of her dad's bed so that he could see it. Everyone who mattered from the school attended the graduation - the Principal, superintendent, members of the school board, tennis coaches, counselors. They even had the iPad set up to allow Bob's 95 year old grandmother to watch the ceremony since she lived elsewhere.






Thanks to the extraordinary measures taken by the Rockford Public School for their student, Bob Chambers and his daughter got to share one last memorable event together before he passed away.


(Fair warning: Keep a kerchief nearby)

Author's note:

This is part of my #AtoZChallenge where I will be focusing on Real Life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion.

The list for this year's (2018) Heroes of Kindness can be found here.

Of course, I have been tracking these lovely human beings for years now and have found children as young as six years old and old women in their eighties from across the world who will restore your faith in humanity. You can find the entire list of Real-life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion here.