March 7, 2003

Bringing Ideas About Life and Death to the Classroom

By S. BRENT PLATE

Sometime in late September or early October of 2001, I announced to my classes that my companion, another professor at the college and the woman I have loved and lived with for the past eight years, had been diagnosed with cancer. I explained that I would be missing several days of class over the next month because of medical treatments.

I initially said that for pragmatic reasons, so the students wouldn't be surprised to show up and find a stranger leading the class. But their gasps