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Crabapple Lane teacher loses battle against cancer

By BRIDGET GUTIERREZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/22/05
A heart-wrenching story of a popular kindergarten teacher, young newlywed and expectant mother fighting an aggressive form of cancer ended sadly this month.

Meg Smith, a beloved teacher at Crabapple Lane Elementary School in Peachtree City, died Dec. 7 after an eight-month battle with cancer.

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Smith, 28, was diagnosed last spring in the midst of her first pregnancy — an ordeal that touched hundreds throughout metro Atlanta.

Fund-raisers for Smith, including a walk-a-thon at her school and a golf tournament and barbecue, raised tens of thousands of dollars last spring. Donations from well-wishers — many of them strangers — continued to pour in throughout her illness, her father, Tom Kibler of Brooks, said last week.

Smith, a 1996 graduate of Fayette County High School, earned her teaching degree from the State University of West Georgia and was nearly finished with her master's degree before she became ill.

For as long as her father could remember, Smith wanted to be a teacher. Her husband, Bray Smith, even proposed in her classroom.

"She loved her kids very much," said Monica Marks, who worked as Smith's teaching assistant for two years. "They would come up to her at her desk and she would put them in her lap.

"She was always very affectionate with them, and it was really genuine. It really was."

Crabapple principal Doe Evans said Smith's colleagues and students, who had hoped she would return to the classroom, were heartbroken by her death.

"It was a rough week for us," Evans said.

Since Smith was first hospitalized in Atlanta, hundreds of messages have filled a special Web journal chronicling the highs and lows of her fight. As a result, her name was placed on prayer lists from Pennsylvania to California.

After Smith died, dozens continued to write about how her strength, courage and faith had inspired them. Some even asked that the family continue to update them about Benjamin, her growing 6-month-old son, who was delivered prematurely last summer.

"When you love other people and you pour your life into other people ... that kind of thing comes back to you," her father said. "And it really came back to Meg in a mighty way."