Dr. Lisa Lundy is a respected AP Literature teacher at Centennial High School with three decades of teaching experience in both secondary and college-level English and has expanded students’ knowledge about literature. Dr. Lundy has frequently been open with her students. Her passion for literature and teaching has guided countless students towards the right path and shares personal experiences, which have not only allowed us to create a genuine relationship with Dr. Lundy but has also opened our eyes to the real world. Dr. Lundy shared a story with us that is very special and personal to her life.
This story began on October 26, 2014, a day that Dr. Lundy will always remember. Dr. Lundy’s mother struggled with Alzhiemer’s disease and lived in an assisted living building with Dr. Lundy’s father. That morning the phone rang at nine minutes past eight, and the nurse at her parents’ facility delivered news that her father wanted to be taken to the hospital once again. Dr. Lundy’s father had an unusual fondness for hospitals – he enjoyed the ambulance ride, the flashing lights, and the opportunity to escape their apartment. However, each trip to the hospital was costly which led Dr. Lundy to deny the request of sending him to the hospital this time.
When Dr. Lundy arrived nine minutes later, she discovered her father in considerable distress. It was evident that he needed immediate medical assistance. She dialed 911, holding her father’s hand as she made the call. Her Alzheimer’s ridden mother sat in the living room and watched Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, completely oblivious of the situation. In those few minutes Dr. Lundy held her father’s hand and called 911, it was already too late, and her father had passed away.
After EMS arrived and took care of her father, Dr. Lundy had to be strong and share the news with her mother. Her mother momentarily grasped the reality of the situation and broke down into tears, they held each other’s hand as they both grieved over her father’s loss. But after a few minutes, the Alzheimer’s had kicked in once again and she reset. She looked over at Dr. Lundy and asked, “Oh hey Lisa, when did you get here?”
Dr. Lundy took care of her mother and sent her to bed. However, she knew that she had to be back the next morning, because her mother surely would’ve begun to search for her father if she didn’t find him at home. At 6AM the following morning, Dr. Lundy woke up with an unbearable headache, the kind of headache that makes your head want to explode after seeing light. She pushed through knowing that she had to go support her mother and headed to the kitchen for some coffee. She opened each cupboard only to find that there were no clean coffee cups in the kitchen. She was too addled to even consider cleaning a cup at that time. The third time around she opened each cupboard and found that her father’s Oklahoma University cup was pushed to the very front of the cupboard.
Dr. Lundy strongly believes in ghosts, as she’s said herself. “Don’t tell me ghosts don’t exist. What’s the harm of me believing that my dad sent that cup and made sure that I would be okay to take care of my mother?”
In that moment, Dr. Lundy was in the indisputable presence of the supernatural. It served as a powerful reminder that although her father had passed, his love blurred the line of life and death, giving students a powerful message that compassion is a force beyond what we can comprehend. Dr. Lundy’s ability to form meaningful connections with students through personal stories is something that captivates the minds and hearts of all of her students and has for years.
