Most of our Knight family knows that Derrick Brookins has a new kidney. His return to work has been celebrated for sure. His journey has been long and difficult, but when he got the phone call at 3 a.m. the day of the first day of teacher in-service at the beginning of the year, his adventure began.
He jumped out of bed and drove to Baylor hospital in the middle of the night for preliminary blood work. He returned home to await the call to see if the donor kidney was a perfect match or not a match at all. By 8 a.m. he was at school telling us that he was indeed a perfect match for a new kidney. He was to report to Baylor Hospital after he gathered his things and had surgery that afternoon. The surgery was successful, and the kidney began working almost immediately.
While we were all thrilled for Derrick, we also had to worry about our choir students. Within a few minutes of Derrick’s leaving, we had Rachael Forrester to fill in for him. She retired from Hebron High School and was delighted to not only help out her friend for more than 25 years, but to work with our students until he was well enough to come back to work.
After eight weeks, he returned to Trivium and his students. In his absence he wrote a new Fight Song for our Knights that will be a part of our history. Together, he and Ms. Forrester will conduct the concert on Thursday night. How lucky we are that things always work out in the end, but we are all grateful for Mr. Brookins’ new health and for Ms. Forrester’s friendship.
Our student have the benefit of more than 50 combined years of experience in music. As they put the final touches on their performances, we all have grateful hearts for Mr. Brookins’ health and his ability to recover and come back to his Trivium home.
