Page 67 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2019- Online Magazine

To this day, I will read a Dick Francis novel outside at
night in her old chair just to feel a little closer to her.

Another part of our “moonlight chats,” as she called
them, involved classical music and Jim Reeves. Muga
loved the piano but never learned how to play. We
would sit and listen to the piano melodies of Jim Reeves’
records, and she would sway her head and hum. Then,
in the third grade, I decided I wanted to play the piano
so I could make Muga smile. I practiced on a tiny plug-
in keyboard in my room, so she could not hear me, and
I tried to learn Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”; I did not
learn it. I did not understand music at all, but one of my
neighbors is a piano teacher. So, one day I wandered
over to her house with ten dollars I took from my mom’s
wallet and asked her to teach me. She graciously agreed
and, after calling my mom, I started piano lessons. I still
take lessons, and ironically, I am learning Clair de Lune
for my senior recital. I know she would have loved to
hear it.
I don’t remember clearly the last time we partook of our
little tradition. As I got older, life became crazier, but the
one constant was looking at the moon with Muga . . .
until it wasn’t. Muga died when I was in the fifth grade,
but I never really grasped the magnitude of it. I can’t
remember the last time we saw the moon together, but
I do remember the first time I saw it by myself. I stood
silently in the middle of the backyard, and I felt like she
was there with me. I finally understood how she could I would always have a constant symbol of light in my
sit on the grass and just be in the moment. life. She showed me how to look for love in the rarest of
places and made me the person I am today.
It never took much convincing to make Muga believe
in anyone. It’s like she had a sixth sense; she could tell Now, when I am feeling uncertain or nervous, I sit
someone’s emotions just by looking into their eyes. She and look at the moon. It is the one way I feel most
was forgiving, yet uncompromising in her beliefs. She connected to Muga. It’s that funny feeling where, even
never hated anyone and firmly believed that everyone if everything had gone wrong that day, in that moment,
deserves a chance. She made certain that everyone the world stops, and it’s just the two of us. It’s my
around her felt loved and respected. She treated people constant symbol that everything will turn out okay
with kindness and never let her friends down. She was a because, even in the darkest of nights, the light from the
beacon of light in everyone’s life, as bright as her shiny moon is everlasting.
blue eyes. I think she taught me to love the moon, so

Article Submitted by
Meghan Mitchell ALL SAINTS

Meghan Mitchell is a senior at All Saints High School. She is the libero for the school’s
varsity volleyball team, a co-captain for the varsity basketball team and she runs track.
She is the secretary of National Honor Society and the Vice-President of the school’s
chapter of the International Thespian Honor Society. She plays the piano and helps
coach her sister’s soccer team. Her parents are Drs. Jennifer and Kelly Mitchell. When
she graduates, Meghan hopes to attend either Stanford University or The Ohio State
University Honors College and major in Public Policy Analysis, with a minor in Economics.

Lubbock Senior Link 67