How do you tell a 9 year old his teacher died.

It's going to be a hard day for Griffin. Yesterday we found out the teacher he had for the past year in school, Miss Jackeline Lawson, was killed in a car accident. I hurt for the family of this young woman who had just finished her first year of teaching. I also hurt for my little boy and the pain he will go through because of this. Griffin is a very sweet, caring, and emotional person. This will hit hard. I wish I could take all his pain upon me but I can't. There's nothing I can do but hold him tight. And there will need to be a lot of that I think. I feel for all those kids. They really liked her. I talked to her on a number of occasions during the year. She was one of those teachers who understood Griffin. That sometimes (like any boy) he just needed to move around. She challenged him in things like Math so Griffin wouldn't get bored. She challenged him in English because she knew he could do better. And she would joke around with them. I think one of Griffin's favourite things was coming to school after having figured out some exponent like 5^4 and asking his teacher. She told me she had to sneak out a calculator to see if Griffin was right. My favourite story was when Griffin was getting into some trouble and Griffin looked at her and said, "Your hair looks really nice today." That caught her off guard. She told me that story at a parent-teacher interview. I'm not sure how long the initial pain will last but there will always be a little part of his heart where Griffin keeps the memories of Miss Lawson and the pain of her leaving. She cried on the last day of school as her students departed. And now we cry as she does. Goodbye Miss Lawson. Thank you for being my son's teacher and the fabulous job you did. You left far too soon.