When I moved up to the middle school in sixth grade, she was the well-known teacher. She seemed kind of mean and strict. I learned quickly who she was though, and of course in a middle school of less than 100 kids, got to know her a bit. She called herself the queen, and had colorful pictures of dolphins splashed all over her classroom. She had pictures of dreamboats from the sixties and seventies and as much dolphin paraphernalia that couldn't be hung up on the wall. She had a very commanding presence and a loud unashamed laugh, with a loud sense of humor to accompany.

At the end of my sixth grade year we were choosing our classes, and we had a choice between Mrs. Nickel or another teacher for homeroom. I chose Mrs. Nickel, despite the fact that two of my friends thought she was too mean. I knew the truth, that she wasn't mean. Later I told her that and she said that she liked to make the sixth graders afraid of her.

I was glad that I chose her class. She taught me English, social studies (which is basically history) and a study skills class. I remember so much of her teaching: always use semicolons to make people think you're smart, read the questions in your textbook and scan the first and last line of the paragraph to make the reading go more quickly, and never forget how terrible the Holocaust was. She was also a driver's ed teacher and told me to never drive over anything in the road. I still use that piece of advice, even though she didn't teach me how to drive.

When I entered high school, I was on the yearbook team which she led for the two years I was there. So I was always around her, always there for hugs or advice or little bits of wisdom. She was a much beloved teacher. I was shocked to learn that she passed away last Friday, of a heart attack. She had just turned 60, and still had maybe five gray hairs on her head. She was so youthful and funny.

She used to say that her favorite bible verse was, "Man shall not live by bread alone. He must have some peanut butter to go with it." She loved peanut butter and Nutella. She used to crack funny jokes, most of them were a bit on the crude side. She's tell kids, "I'd break your butt but there's already a crack in it!" and then laugh loudly.

I went to her memorial service yesterday, and there were about 500-700 people there, most of them former students of hers. She taught there for almost thirty years. She was also one of the two people I knew who had a teaching certificate for K-12th grade. They don't issue those anymore. I had the great honor of signing Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" for her, with former members of the ASL (American Sign Language) Club. It made me proud to go back there and see so many people she had touched and to see old friends. It made me very proud to grow up in such a place and to have a teacher like her.

I couldn't possibly write everything I want to about her. Most of the things are just small things, small ways in which she impacted me. On the whole, she influenced me profoundly. She influenced every one of her students just as much as me, if not more. She will be very sorely missed, by me and by everyone who knew her.