My heart is hurting this morning as I rise to find a timeline filled with news of the passing of my beloved teacher/mentor/friend Myrna Ria Ross.

It’s amazing. I can’t sing a lick and never sang in her choir, but was blessed to know and love her as a mother figure for nearly 30 years. She saw a shy, skinny little girl in the halls of Birmingham’s Ramsay High School, welcomed me into her world and helped grow me into a woman. Not to think I’m too special, I know full-well that she did the same for thousands and thousands of students over the last 35 years, most of which she still remembered by name, many of whom she was still in touch. In the last several years, the Lord saw fit to draw us closer allowing many phone calls, shared projects together, text messages, funny emails and moments in her office at…