Mountain View teacher put her all into students

Sept. 26--BREMERTON -- Miriam Hanlon-Weston was "that teacher," the one hundreds of students will remember all their lives.

When kids came to class hungry, she fed them.

If they needed shoes for gym class, she bought them.

She played AC/DC to get their attention, brooked no nonsense once she got it and hammered lessons home in her broad New England accent, still strong after 14 years at Mountain View Middle School teaching "Language Aaahts."

Miriam, "Mims" to all who knew and loved her, died Sept. 18 of brain and stomach cancer at age 60.

"It's been very, very hard," Principal Michaeleen Gelhaus said. "A sadness has definitely fallen on us at the building."

"She was the most unique, wonderful human being that I have ever met," said her husband, Bill Weston, of Bremerton.

A celebration of her life will be Sunday at the school.

Mims was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and grew up in a large Irish family. Bill was her childhood pal and neighbor in a World War I-era "slum."

"You know how little kids tend to torment each other? I was her tormentor," said Bill, who was a year older. "We would play marbles together, and she was a much better marble player than I was, so I would put garter snakes in her can of marbles."

As young adults, they went their separate ways, he to a stint with the Coast Guard, she to a hardscrabble pursuit of her teaching degree.

Mims, whose mother died when she was 15, saved for college working at supermarkets and selling shoes. She attended one year at the University of New Hampshire before she ran out of money and had to go back to work.

When Mims' nephew was killed in a motorcycle accident, half-sister Mary and family gave the insurance money to Mims so she could complete college. She graduated from UNH in 1986 with degrees in elementary education and psychology.

Mims taught for 12 years in Bedford, New Hampshire, in an affluent district where only the best and brightest teachers were retained.

Meanwhile, Bill, now working at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, had married, had two children and divorced. They reconnected on one of his visits back East to see his children. Never married, Mims was living with and caring for her Auntie Irene. He took her out for a lobster roll, "and we've been together ever since."

Well, more or less. They carried on a bicoastal relationship until their marriage Feb. 22, 1999, in Las Vegas.

"I went back there with a rental truck and put her whole life in there," Bill said. "It was a very small truck."

At Mountain View, Mims quickly endeared herself to co-workers.

"She was just a wonderful mentor for all the new teachers and staff people in our building," Gelhaus said.

Her storeroom was like Target. Whatever you needed, she had it and gave it freely.

She was "super-generous, great with kids, a tremendous educator," Gelhaus said.

She started a lunch fund for students with help from the American Legion and contributed abundantly to the Backpacks for Kids program. A voracious reader, Mims held a Book Bistro in the library to entice reluctant readers. A consummate cook -- stuffed pork chops were a specialty -- she once earned an education grant to host a Diners Club, where students learned the joy of preparing and eating a meal together.

She kept long hours at school, going the extra mile for kids and families.

"It was something that I admired her greatly for," Bill said. "She always believed that it's all about the kids, and she lived her whole life that way."

During her last year of teaching, she cared for Bill, who has fought his own battle with cancer and is now in remission. Mims retired at the end of the 2013-14 school year.

Her illness took her down quickly, starting in mid-July. She died at Harrison Medical Center surrounded by friends and fellow teachers, asleep, in no apparent discomfort.

"She was not a church goer, but she was a darn good Catholic," Bill said. "The priest arrived in time to give her last rites. At the moment of Extreme Unction, when he blessed her with the holy oil on her forehead, she passed."

Celebration of life

What: A celebration of Miriam Hanlon-Weston's life

When: 1 p.m. Sunday

Where: Mountain View Middle School, 2400 Perry Ave., Bremerton

___

(c)2014 the KitsapSun (Bremerton, Wash.)

Visit the KitsapSun (Bremerton, Wash.) at www.kitsapsun.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services