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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Making the best out of a bad situation, a beloved Salt Lake county teacher is finding strength thanks to hundreds of former students.
Patricia Bergstrom has nothing but good things to stay about Cottonwood High School, the school that's about to become her former workplace.
"We have a great program here. We have a physics math program that the kids absolutely love," she said. "We have good music. We have good everything."
After 27 years as a math teacher, Mrs. Bergstrom as she's known to her students, is being let go because of low enrollment.
Granite School District spokesperson Ben Horsley said it's a situation the schools in the district face every spring.
In just a few days, the "We Love Mrs. Bergstrom" Facebook page has more than 600 likes and hundreds of people have left messages, kind words, encouragement and stories.
Officials have to look at the student to teacher ratio and sometimes the numbers mean a member of the teaching staff has to be "surplused."
"Unfortunately, we don't have enough people in that particular program to continue to employ her at this particular school," Horsley said, "and we have had to relocate her at another school within the Granite School District."
It was something Bergstrom said she never saw coming.
"I was shocked when the principal came down and told me," she said. "I made him repeat it a couple times... I just said, 'wow'."
It's been tough to take, especially for Bergstrom's children.
"We were all really shocked," said Bergstrom's daughter Brittany Jones. " It came as quite a surprise to us. She's just three years away from being able to take a full retirement."
Bergstrom has spent nearly 30 years learning to navigate Cottonwood's halls by foot, by cane and now by wheelchair.
She has Multiple Sclerosis and has a daily routine and system in place for when she might need a little extra help. Her fellow teachers and even students are always around to step in, like chemistry teacher Dennis Hummer.
Hummer gets to school early every day and helps Bergstrom get her wheelchair out of her car. If the weather is bad, he'll help her get inside.
"That's my biggest thing," Bergstrom said. "It's crazy because I know it's not that major of a deal, but on these snowy days that we've had there's no way I could get up the ramp if I didn't have him helping me out."
And that's partly why the thought of learning to get around a new school scares Bergstrom.
"There's also things like, I know exactly where to go. I know how to get around. I know where the bathroom is," she said.
But it's not just the fear of a new school that's been hard on Bergstrom the past few weeks.
Jones says her mom's been feeling down as a teacher, questioning if she's good at what she does or if she should stop.
But seeing her mother question herself gave Jones an idea. She started a Facebook page where former students can share their memories of their beloved teacher.
"She's the type of person that always turns something negative into a positive and that's what we wanted to do with this page," Jones said.
In just a few days, the "We Love Mrs. Bergstrom" Facebook page has more than 600 likes and hundreds of people have left messages, kind words, encouragement and stories.
One student wrote "thank you for making learning enjoyable, for teaching me to love math and simply for making my experience at school more fun." Another wrote "you are a household name in our home."
As Jones read some of the comments aloud to her mom, you could see the emotions take over. Especially when she read the words of a former student who reminded Bergstrom of one of the darkest days in U.S. History.
"People will always remember where they were when 9/11 happened and I'll always remember that I was in Mrs. Bergstrom's class," said the student who also wrote of how Bergstrom helped comfort her class and in the weeks to come helped them learn lessons from the disaster.
Bergstrom helped students write down their thoughts and feelings and more than 12 years later, she still has those assignments in a file in her desk drawer.
"She was an amazing teacher," wrote another former math student on the Facebook page.
"The universal theme is, she always made us feel loved," said Jones of the majority of the comments. "I think this will give her the encouragement she needs to continue teaching and just doing what she loves."
And it seems it has. Bergstrom said she was thrilled to see the comments and stories from her former students.
"You know what?" she said. "I'm not sad, sad that I'm leaving this school because it's just so many memories and... Now I have the chance to think about them all and remember all of them. This is going to be great."
For 27 years Patricia Bergstrom has helped inspire her students to push themselves and make the best of their schooling and she's still doing it, in and out of the classroom.
"If I have to go to another school," she said, "then all I can say is that, you know what? It's OK. I'll go there and try to make the best of it, too."
Bergstrom's current students are just as supportive as the hundreds of former students who've been posting on the Facebook page.
Many of them plan to support her Saturday, April 26, at the MS Walk in Salt Lake City.
For details of how you can also get involved to support others with Multiple Sclerosis, go to the Walk MS website.
Contributing: Deanie Wimmer
