News at St. Catherine's
Remembering Taylor Anderson '04
Derek Kannemeyer, who teaches French and creative writing, shared his memories of Taylor Anderson '04 during a special Upper School chapel on Wednesday.
The words written by Derek Kannemeyer about Taylor Anderson '04. Kannemeyer shared these words with Upper School students about Taylor Anderson, who lost her life following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last month, during Wednesday's chapel.
"I see Taylor Anderson's face 10 or 20 times a day. (Ronny Readsalot, as I often think of her, it's an anagram of her name, it's what she called herself for one of the issues of the Atelier that she worked on) If you've been in my classroom, you know that my bulletin boards are covered with photographs, mostly of kids I've taught here over the years. There are three pictures up of Taylor. On my laptop, I keep 30 photos in rotation as my wallpaper. One of them's of me, Taylor and Meredith Wouters at Jr.-Sr. Banquet; the pictures rotate every minute, which means that that image comes back twice per hour. You kind of don't notice your wallpaper after a while, but recently, every time Taylor's face pops up, I notice.
"Taylor and Meredith were co-editors of the Atelier that year, they co-invited me to Banquet, and you really don't need to give presents at Banquet, but they each gave me a set of DVD's, a full season each of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The three of us always claimed to be the biggest Buffy fans on campus, and we could get quite snobby about it, so they made it their mission to ensure I was no longer at the mercy of the TV schedulers but could watch Buffy whenever I liked. The gift-giving came just before the photograph, so in it we're all in a pretty good mood. Taylor and Meredith are hugging and I'm mugging. When it was confirmed that Taylor had died—well, I was at School, so the first thing I did was open my laptop and listen to a half-dozen Barenaked Ladies songs, they were Taylor's favorite band back in high school; but as soon as I got home, I pulled out the season of Buffy that Taylor gave me and I watched my favorite episode.
"So there are currently 13,000-plus confirmed deaths in Japan from the earthquake and tsunami, and there are still over 14,000 people missing, and how quickly those people can become statistics instead of people. 27,000, wow, that's terrible, well, on with our lives. When just one of those people has a face that matters to you, what those numbers mean hits harder. Because of Taylor, I've paid attention enough to know the name of Monty Dickson, of Anchorage, Alaska, the only other American so far confirmed dead—there are, I believe, nine still missing. Because I knew Taylor, I've looked harder at the images of the town where she lived, I've been shown the spot where they found her body, a Japanese journalist showed me video interviews with Taylor's students—telling the kinds of ordinary, simple, full-of-love stories about her that I just did, and reminding me again that she became a teacher, a language teacher at that—and the connections are just so personal that it gets a little hard to function.
"As quite honestly, it should. One face, which lends a face to other faces, and to a community, inking in the features, till let's hope you begin to feel the shadow of the greater devastation, of her one terrible story multiplied over and over, one by one. Most of my own mourning, obviously, has been for Taylor. But because of her, through her, my heart goes out just a bit more fiercely and deeply and honestly to 27,000 others. And to those who loved them."
Derek Kannemeyer taught Taylor Anderson for three years at St. Catherine's and worked closely with her on "Atelier," the School's creative writing publication.
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"I see Taylor Anderson's face 10 or 20 times a day. (Ronny Readsalot, as I often think of her, it's an anagram of her name, it's what she called herself for one of the issues of the Atelier that she worked on) If you've been in my classroom, you know that my bulletin boards are covered with photographs, mostly of kids I've taught here over the years. There are three pictures up of Taylor. On my laptop, I keep 30 photos in rotation as my wallpaper. One of them's of me, Taylor and Meredith Wouters at Jr.-Sr. Banquet; the pictures rotate every minute, which means that that image comes back twice per hour. You kind of don't notice your wallpaper after a while, but recently, every time Taylor's face pops up, I notice.
"Taylor and Meredith were co-editors of the Atelier that year, they co-invited me to Banquet, and you really don't need to give presents at Banquet, but they each gave me a set of DVD's, a full season each of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The three of us always claimed to be the biggest Buffy fans on campus, and we could get quite snobby about it, so they made it their mission to ensure I was no longer at the mercy of the TV schedulers but could watch Buffy whenever I liked. The gift-giving came just before the photograph, so in it we're all in a pretty good mood. Taylor and Meredith are hugging and I'm mugging. When it was confirmed that Taylor had died—well, I was at School, so the first thing I did was open my laptop and listen to a half-dozen Barenaked Ladies songs, they were Taylor's favorite band back in high school; but as soon as I got home, I pulled out the season of Buffy that Taylor gave me and I watched my favorite episode.
"So there are currently 13,000-plus confirmed deaths in Japan from the earthquake and tsunami, and there are still over 14,000 people missing, and how quickly those people can become statistics instead of people. 27,000, wow, that's terrible, well, on with our lives. When just one of those people has a face that matters to you, what those numbers mean hits harder. Because of Taylor, I've paid attention enough to know the name of Monty Dickson, of Anchorage, Alaska, the only other American so far confirmed dead—there are, I believe, nine still missing. Because I knew Taylor, I've looked harder at the images of the town where she lived, I've been shown the spot where they found her body, a Japanese journalist showed me video interviews with Taylor's students—telling the kinds of ordinary, simple, full-of-love stories about her that I just did, and reminding me again that she became a teacher, a language teacher at that—and the connections are just so personal that it gets a little hard to function.
"As quite honestly, it should. One face, which lends a face to other faces, and to a community, inking in the features, till let's hope you begin to feel the shadow of the greater devastation, of her one terrible story multiplied over and over, one by one. Most of my own mourning, obviously, has been for Taylor. But because of her, through her, my heart goes out just a bit more fiercely and deeply and honestly to 27,000 others. And to those who loved them."
Derek Kannemeyer taught Taylor Anderson for three years at St. Catherine's and worked closely with her on "Atelier," the School's creative writing publication.
Located in the heart of Richmond, Virginia, St. Catherine’s School is a private, all-girls pre-K, kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school. We provide a well-rounded educational experience for girls from communities across Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico and all of central Virginia. St.Catherine’s all-girls educational experience is rooted in more than a century of history and tradition. From our revolutionary past to our dynamic present, St. Catherine’s has always focused on preparing students for a boundless future.
