Last Note from Anna

This morning I am grieving the death of Anna Shepherd.

She was the long-time member of the Metro Nashville Board of Education, representing the McGavock High School territory. Most recently she was the board chair.  She was an important leader in our city, an elected official, and an enthusiastic advocate for public schools.

She was also a good person, and she was my friend.

I spoke with Anna many times over the years – about schools, family, and life. She was an accessible public official. The last time we spoke was a couple of weeks ago. I was working on a column about how MNPS is approaching the re-opening of schools at the end of the summer. That’s a complicated subject, with many moving parts and some big unknowns, and frankly my first thought was to just talk with Anna. She helped me see the big picture, as usual.

Last Friday, I posted on Field Notes my comment on a very different subject: What can our community do, constructively, in response to the nationwide demonstrations against racism and brutality? I wrote that white folks like me need to understand the lives that our black and brown neighbors live, always in the enduring long shadow of racism’s history. I suggested we might start with organized, intentional conversations across our city.

Anna was a subscriber to the Field Notes from the beginning. She was kind to share her thoughts with me, most often in a direct email message. The last note from Anna came on Friday, the same day I suggested the community conversations. It was only four words but I will cherish them. They sort of summed up her long-suffering zeal for making Nashville the best it can be:

“Count me in, Keel.”

© Keel Hunt, 2020