FHS alumni honor their former teacher

FAIRFIELD — Nohema Graber touched the lives of hundreds upon hundreds of students who had her as a Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School.

Graber’s current and former students are finding ways to carry on her memory after her death last week. Upon hearing the news of her passing on Thursday, FHS alumna Mira Pappin began painting a portrait of her former teacher. Pappin worked on the piece through the night, and early on the morning of Friday, Nov. 5, posted a photo of her painting on Facebook.

The painting shows an image of Graber wearing a cross behind a row of flowers with the words “Peace and Love” written over her head. It was a phrase familiar to her students, one that she often said after giving a big assignment.

“It was her way to tell us that she meant us the best,” Pappin said. “She was helping us improve with any assignment she gave us. Her mantra of ‘peace and love’ always stopped our complaints, because we did love her.”

Pappin said she painted the portrait of Graber because she felt the need to honor and celebrate her former teacher, and Graber always appreciated Pappin’s artwork.

“I hated seeing all the photos of the news articles people were posting of her,” Pappin said. “They were grainy and didn’t show how her students saw her, which was full of color and beauty.”

Pappin, a 2020 graduate of FHS, had Graber for Spanish II and Spanish III. She fondly remembers the talent shows that she and her classmates got to perform for Graber, usually right before winter break.

“They were a great way to unwind and have fun,” Pappin said.

During one of these talent shows, Pappin and her friend Harper Fiske sang the song “Remember Me” from the movie “Coco” in both Spanish and English.

“Mrs. Graber cried from our singing,” Pappin said.

Pappin said Graber held her students to high standards, which Pappin credits for making her practically fluent in Spanish by the end of her third year.

“I was able to read most Spanish and hold a conversation with Mrs. Graber in Spanish pretty confidently,” Pappin said. “I know that many students were just as proficient.”

Emma Carlson, FHS Class of 2019, wrote a poem in memory of her former teacher. She posted it on Facebook just hours after learning of Graber’s passing.

The poem ends with the lines:

We will all see you in everything that is good

And we will all smile and we will all croon,

“Hola, Señora Graber. ¿Cómo estás?”

Carlson shared memories of her favorite times in Graber’s class. She had Graber for Spanish II and Spanish III. Like Pappin, she loved Graber’s catchphrase “peace and love.”

“I always thought it was funny when she would do that,” Carlson said. “She’d give us a couple pages of homework, and then exclaim, ‘Don’t hate me! Peace and love, chamacos [kids].’ It was impossible to think of her as mean after that.”

Carlson said the thing she appreciated most of all in Graber was her love for the arts. Carlson said sometimes enthusiasm for sports can overshadow theater and music, but Graber “didn’t let us more artistically inclined kids slip by her.” She attended every play, concert and musical.

“The next day of class following one of those events, she would individually acknowledge as many of the participating students that she could,” Carlson said. “After that, she would notoriously encourage the rest of the class to ‘clap on them!’ When the applause was mediocre, she’d try again, joyously yelling, ‘Don’t be jealous! Clap on them!’”

Graber asked students to sign their programs from these events, so she could save the signatures for “when you are famous one day.”

“She was amazing,” Carlson said. “She was wonderful. She was a tough teacher and a tough grader, but you learned more from her than anyone else. I’ll miss her very dearly. The world lost an amazing person.”

Carlson’s full poem is as follows:

We all talked and we all think we heard you this morning

Rousing the roosters and the trees and the sun to wake us all gentle — wake us all lovely

We all think we saw you teaching the speckled fawn to stand, the hatchlings to fly, the children to speak.

We — the children, your students, your kids, your chamacos — we come from you. We are because of you.

And come this time next year, we will all sheathe you in a gown of marigolds and we will all carry you home.

We will always carry you, we promise, okay? We promise

We will see you in everything that is good

And we will smile and we will croon,

“Hola, Señora Graber. ¿Cómo estás?”

We promise