Transcript for How choir students banded together to surprise their ill former teacher
will speak to teachers and students everywhere. Most of us had one teacher that changed our lives. More often than not, we don’t get to show our appreciation. Choir teacher Barbara lewick recently felt the love and appreciation from her students. For 15 years Barbara loved to show up for work, more than just a job, her students were her family. To them she wasn’t Mrs. Lewick. She wasn’t Barbara. She was simply mama Lou. Earlier this year she was pulled away from the music she loved to teach after being diagnosed with a soft tissue cancer. Her former students knew they had to do something. A few weeks ago more than 50 of Barbara’s former students reunited to record a special performance of one of Barbara’s favorite songs “Seasons of love” from the musical “Rent.” ??? 525,600 minutes ??? ??? 525,000 moments so dear ??? ??? 525,600 minutes ??? that video and Barbara’s response has gone viral. She says it’s given her the joy and energy to keep on fighting. Her only regret she says, was not being well enough to be there that day with her kids. Thank you, mama Lou. Thank you for the fun memories. We love you, mama Lou. You guys. Let’s give a big welcome to Barbara lewick. We are so happy to have you here. First of all, how are you doing? How are you feeling? I’m doing great. I’m so excited to be here and share the story of this wonderful video that the kids made. It’s amazing. It speaks volumes to the type of teacher you are. You have watched this video a lot. So have many of us. What was it like the first time you saw it? It took my breath away. It was just amazing. I wanted to slow it down so I could frame each face and remember them. The fact that they gave up a Saturday morning, they have lives of their own, soccer games on Saturday mornings. The fact that they gave up that time to cheer me up was just amazing. Did you have any idea all these former students, that they loved you so much? No idea, but I loved them back. I think exceptional teachers, so much comes from you yourself. Was it also the craft of music that made these connections so strong? Yes, the shared experiences of performing and the craft of singing beautiful music. All I did was stand in front of them and cheer them on. We have Doug and Amanda, they’re here. They’re in our audience. These are two of the alumni who organized the video and got everybody away from soccer practice on a Saturday to do this video. There were 50 people who came out for this video. How did it all come about? I ran into one of my former teachers earlier that summer. She was like Mrs. Lewick has cancer. Can you rally the troops and send cards? She said I know you can do it. So I did. I started a Facebook message. It grew and grew to hundreds of people. Then it turned into let’s sing for mama Lou. We were like how are we going to do that? Doug is the video man. He said I can make a video. That’s how it started. Now why does mama Lou mean so much to, not only you guys, but everyone that couldn’t have said yes faster? That’s hard to encapsulate in words. That’s what’s great about music, it can cover things that you can’t explain. We call her mama Lou for a reason. That classroom was the closest thing to a home many of us had when we were in high school. She was mom. She said we gave up a Saturday morning. How many Saturdays did she give up? She gave us endless hours for us. She made us feel welcome and pushed us to be better people, not just better musicians, but better people. Now, mama Lou, we have your husband here. His name is John. I was going to say papa John. Mama Lou and papa John. We call him papa Lou. Papa Lou, when you first saw this video, when you saw what these students did for your wife, what were your feelings? It was a great reunion. I saw many of the faces that I remember from the shows and the concerts. It was beautiful. Love it. We agree. We agree 100%. I think the best part is seeing people love the person you love most of all. It’s a beautiful gift. E — yes. We have a lot more coming up.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
