A Lesson Before Dying

By Jeff Meade

In the cluster of homes surrounding Pleasantview Elementary School and extending down the gently sloping hill toward the Mississippi River, twinkling bulbs dangle from rooftop rain gutters and peek out from snow-dusted trees and bushes. Overlooking it all, at the crest of the hill, is a huge five-pointed star, shining from high atop a spindly tower. In the weeks approaching the holidays, the town of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, looks like a scene from a child's model-train set.

Like most of the world, Sauk Rapids is waiting for Christmas. So it is in Dennis Frederick's 3rd grade classroom at Pleasantview, where candy-colored construction paper Christmas lights are strung from wall to wall. But Frederick, a longtime teacher at Pleasantview, rarely gets the chance to share in his students' anticipation. A little more than two years ago, he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He was 35 when he learned the news. Hopeful of beating the disease, he took a leave of absence from school and endured a year of chemotherapy and radiationonly to find the cancer had spread. Last May, doctors predicted he had six months to live. Given the option for more aggressive therapy, he declined. Instead, he made plans to return, for as long as he was physically able, to the place where he has been happiest, back to the classroom and his kids.