Teacher remembered for her enthusiasm, work with students
On May 18, Sandy Bradley said goodbye.
“My cancer has quickly taken over my body,” she wrote on Facebook, “and my time here on earth is coming to an end. I am at peace, I know this is all part of God’s plan. I have told my kids that I am the winner.”
Bradley, a Dade County, Ga., Schools employee for 25 years, had been diagnosed with colon cancer just two months earlier. She could no longer eat or drink. She was at home, receiving hospice care, waiting for her end. She thought about her children — a daughter in college, a son in high school — and knew life without a mother would be difficult. And yet, she was upbeat.
“I have no regrets,” she wrote. “I really feel like I have lived my life to
“I have no regrets.
I really feel like I have lived my life to the fullest. I didn’t just talk about doing things or going places — I did it.”
— SANDY BRADLEY
the fullest. I didn’t just talk about doing things or going places — I did it.”
Bradley died around 6 a.m. Wednesday, surrounded by family in her Ooltewah home. Soon after, word spread through text messages to her co-workers. Dade County High School Principal Josh Ingle struggled to prepare for Bradley’s fast decline.
“It was hard for me to imagine her being sick,” he said Wednesday afternoon, “because of her energy and her passion. When that post came out last week on Facebook, it was a punch in the gut or slap in the face. That’s when I knew it was real.”
At 7 tonight, during a presentation for the senior class of Dade County High School, Superintendent Jan Harris will present three students with $500 scholarships in Bradley’s honor. The students were among the at-risk population Bradley had worked with as the high school’s graduation coach.
In her career, she had also worked as a teacher, a math coach and a district test coordinator.
“She was a Master Teacher and a friend to children,” Harris wrote in a press release Thursday. “I will never forget her. She was intelligent, kind, hard-working and student-centered.”
The family will accept visitors from 4-8 p.m. Friday at the Chattanooga Funeral Home, located at 7414 Old Lee Highway. Her memorial service will take place Saturday at 10 a.m. at Ooltewah United Methodist Church.
Dade County Elementary School Principal Tracy Blevins said she first met Bradley when the two worked together as academic coaches. Bradley specialized in helping third-, fourth- and fifth-graders who had academically fallen behind their peers. She would meet with teachers and discuss individual students’ problems, trying to come up with personal solutions tailored for each boy or girl.
Sometimes, she would put the students in smaller groups. Other times, she would let them use computer programs. Blevins said Bradley was “task oriented,” working down a list of problems to help solve every day.
Later, Ingle said, Bradley worked as a math coach, trying to inject enthusiasm into the classrooms. She designed T-shirts that said “Got Math?” on them.
Bradley was particularly suited for her final role, as the high school’s graduation coach. She tried to help teenagers catch up in courses so they could graduate on time. She would create flexible schedules for students, which sometimes included online courses. Ingle said she exchanged emails with her students late into the night.
When students were consistently late for class, she would pull them aside and try to learn if they had any issues. Some of them were supporting their families by working late at night. Ingle said that Bradley called some employers and asked if they could give the students earlier shifts. In other cases, when students needed money, she put them in touch with managers at local companies.
“It takes a special educator to really be able to do that,” Ingle said. “She was fantastic. She was full of compassion. She had so much energy. And she poured her heart into this school system.”
In March, Ingle said, Bradley started to complain about sharp pains. She said she felt like she kept running a fever. Blevins said she went to the emergency room toward the end of the month, thinking she suffered a gallbladder attack. There, doctors found a mass, and they diagnosed her with late-stage colon cancer.
She never returned to school.
Two weeks ago, Blevins exchanged text messages with her, after doctors treated Bradley for what they believed was an infection. “A mini surgery,” Bradley said. Blevins told her that some school employees wanted to clean her house for her, whenever she was ready.
“That is so sweet and generous,” Bradley wrote back. “It’s great to feel so supported. This has been awful and scary.”
“I love you, sister,” Blevins said.