A bright beam: Uniontown students make teacup candles in memory of beloved classroom aide
Courtesy Bridgette Bishop
Students in Bridgette Bishop’s life skills class at Uniontown Area High School made special teacup candies for their mothers for Mother’s Day.
Courtesy Bridgette Bishop
Some of the candles made by students in Uniontown Area High School life skills teacher Bridgette Bishop’s class, using teacups that belonged to beloved classroom aide Alessia Romeo, who recently passed away.
Courtesy Bridgette Bishop
Uniontown Area High School life skills teacher Bridgette Bishop and her students made Mother’s Day candles and paid tribute to a long-time classroom aide who died in February.
”How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” - William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”
For Mother’s Day this year, students in Uniontown Area High School life skills teacher Bridgette Bishop’s class presented their moms with candles they made in honor of longtime classroom aide Alessia Romeo, who died in February.
The candles were made in vintage china teacups that belonged to Romeo.
“We were her family. She loved coming to work, she loved the kids,” said Bishop.
Romeo had worked as Bishop’s aide for about seven years, and had been with some of the students in the class for five or six years, seeing them grow up.
When Romeo – who had been diagnosed with cancer about 20 years ago and battled several health issues since then – passed away, a cousin asked Bishop if she would like to have the teacups.
Bishop wasn’t sure what she would do with them, “but I thought they were pretty and cute and dainty, and there were a lot of them,” she said.
While looking on Pinterest for Mother’s Day gift ideas, Bishop saw teacup candles and thought making the candles in the cups would be a fitting tribute to her friend and aide.
“The parents knew Alessia, and I always try to think up something on Mother’s Day that has meaning for them,” Bishop said.
So earlier this week, in the kitchen of the life skills classroom, the students picked a wax color and a scented oil – lemon, vanilla, rose or lavender – and then melted the wax, inserted a wick in a teacup, and poured in the wax.
“They had a lot of fun with it and they turned out really well,” said Bishop.
For Bishop, the project was especially meaningful.
“Alessia was amazing. We clicked from day one. She looked forward to coming to work every day, she never missed work. She was always so thoughtful,” said Bishop, recalling that Romeo bought the students gifts for birthdays and Christmas, and provided them with shoes or jackets, or items they needed.
Bishop marveled at Romeo’s positive outlook on life. She said Romeo often told her she viewed every day since she first beat cancer as an extra day she wasn’t guaranteed to have.
And Romeo had an impact on the students.
“She got along great with the kids. Knowing the teacups were hers and that the kids knew her so well makes this special,” said Bishop. “I would like them to take away that these candles are special because you will always have a memory of Ms. Romeo.”