By LINDA GOFORTH
Los Alamos

I  know that we thanked Mrs. Gerhart every time she led one of our young family members in band at the Los Alamos Middle School and with her serious business demeanor and greatly loving heart stood for the many years that we had a child or grandchild studying her direction.

She would show them that they, the kids, were being taken seriously by the people before them, ready and full of anticipation of what they had accomplished. Listening to and watching them were one and the same as they moved into the music with all their attention to this event that was their’s together and for each one individually.

It was given a suitable bravado I thought every time the audience clapped and some of us took pride in not crying at middle school concerts especially. Each season marked another milestone.

So many milestones did she lead and mark with some remarkable variety of children and young ladies and young gentlemen we call kids. No kidding about it, though she actually had a wonderful sense of humor, and as in her photo, a warm and fun loving smile. I would have loved to have been a witness to some of the sessions with her class, but thought as quickly that it would be out of place.

It was her space, her understanding, her experience, and her development of an expertise that was essentially sacred somehow, and even when it was “easy”. Every teacher has it in their desire to give that certain need and want and fear its attention in learning. Sometimes it looks smoothly done, but it is never easy. It can be exhausting, exhilarating, nerve bending, but it is in the long haul deeply satisfying, and every day it comes back in rewards that add up.

Mrs. Gerhart was not only a musician dedicated to her love of music, but also dedicated to kids of various ages who have given thanks for her gifts. She has been missed and will always be remembered.