The only thing that has helped her has been her weekly tutoring sessions with Ms Laurel. After we independently sought out and paid for dyslexia diagnosis, we were given a tutoring referral. Ms Laurel was a retired K-12 teacher. She met with Ava via Zoom every week since early March. She has been a constant and routine educational contact for Ava through all of this. She didn’t come cheap, but her time was very valuable to us.

September 15th, Ms Laurel let me know that she was given a diagnosis that required treatment that might interfere with tutoring. Although she offered to refer us to another tutor, we decided that flexibility was no problem for us.

About three weeks ago she missed a session, and a few days later her daughter in law sent a text that she had been hospitalized. Yesterday we learned that she passed away on Wednesday.

Last spring, just before the only thing anyone could talk about was COVID, Ava was diagnosed with dyslexia. I learned that dyslexia is not a medical diagnosis, nor and educational diagnosis. Namely because we don’t understand it well, and no one wants to pay for therapy or treatment of it. However, it has had significant dramatic effects on Ava’s ability to read, write, function in school and developmentally progress. Furthermore, because no one wants the responsibility of paying for it or its therapy, the school has avoided developing plans for her to have success. We finally did push through an IEP during the COVID shut down, but she has not benefited from this at all in distance learning.

We haven’t known Ms Laurel very long, but she was a light in a dark time especially for Ava. Ava has shown progress since she started working with Ms Laurel too. We will miss her deeply for the gifts that she imparted on Ava in the short time we have been acquainted. Goodbyes are never easy.

We wish to thank Ms Laurel, even though she will never have the opportunity to hear our gratitude.