A tribute to a mentor, a friend and teacher to hundreds of South Lake Tahoe children

Judy Simmons, or “Teacher Judy” as we all knew her, left us on August 28, 2018 to become an angel above. She was a teacher, friend, mentor, listener, consoler and counselor to hundreds and hundreds of children and parents over the last 40 years. Teacher Judy was the co-director of Tahoe Parents Nursery school (TPNS) for 30 years and an educator of the youngest students in our community for more than 40 years. She loved her job, she loved the preschoolers, their families and her co-workers. Each became her friend.

I first met Teacher Judy in September of 1973 right after our young family moved to South Lake Tahoe. Teacher Judy greeted me and the other parents and children on that first day at TPNS. She was warm and so gentle with each new child that was starting preschool for the first time. She welcomed us with her kindness and very soon I knew that she also genuinely liked and accepted each of us exactly as we were. I liked her immediately as she soothed all of our nerves, feeling frazzled and anxious as our little ones clung to our pant legs, hiding their faces.

Judy was a natural teacher, continually modeling to her TPNS students, both children and parents, how to be kind, how to speak with a soft heart and how to accept each other as we are all much more alike than we are different. She embraced and celebrated our differences, our quirks and the more she sensed we needed her kindness, the more she would make an effort to give it. Some parents in TPNS needed Judy more than others. Some children needed the gentle quietness and guidance of Judy too. She intuitively knew this as she spent one on one time with each of them, never rushed and always present. Did I mention her patience? She was that!

I was fortunate to know Judy well. First as a parent at TPNS and later as her fellow TPNS co-director/teacher. We balanced each other perfectly. She loved the details, the working with each little one and each parent individually. I loved the groups, the singing, the games etc. I was her student too. For all those years, we were all her students while not even realizing it. She probably didn’t realize that she was everyone’s teacher either. She was just Judy, demonstrating and teaching each one of us what unconditional love and acceptance of others looks like and what a gift it was to all of us who received it.

And speaking of gifts, as an expert needle worker, she would often give the unexpected gift to a child, a classroom of children, to her friends and to their children.

Judy was quiet, steady and supportive of others always. In her quiet way she leaves a strong legacy.

Her legacy speaks to the values of kindness and acceptance and serves as a reminder of how to treat each other. We are so grateful for her life, her legacy and her loving presence in our lives. Our lives were touched by an angel. Judy, you have earned your wings.

This tribute is written on behalf of every person that knew and loved Judy.

- Wendy David