English teacher Chuck Hussung made his return to St. Louis U. High on Monday after missing nearly three months to focus on caring for his wife, Marsha.

Marsha Hussung passed away on Friday, Oct. 19 due to a brain tumor which she was diagnosed with early in 2018.

Hussung was scheduled to teach four classes this year—two junior English classes and two freshman English classes. ASC Justin Seaton will continue to be the lead teacher for his freshman classes, until at least Christmas break. Hussung plans to visit each class a few days a week to chime in some thoughts and learn his students’ names.

“I think they’ve been aware of me, but I’ve been an absence and now they need to be aware of me as a presence. I need to start learning the names, so it’s kind of three quarters time, give me a little space in my schedule,” said Hussung.

According to Hussung, easing himself back into a full time teaching role will allow him to set aside time to sort out the bureaucratic things that follow a death, write thank you notes, and build a new life.

“There is a lot of work to be done, and that little flexibility from now until Christmas will allow for time to do that,” said Hussung.

While Hussung was happy to return to SLUH, he didn’t have the same thoughts a week prior.

“When I was deciding when to come back, and this is a week or two ago, I was dreading it. It felt like it was going to be jarring, and I had gotten so used to life on a very different scale. Daily patterns, and the kinds of needs I was meeting were so different than what school demands,” said Hussung.

That dread soon turned to excitement as Hussung prepared to return to his lifelong passion of teaching.

“I got up this morning to get to school at my customary 7:00, which is what I like, and all of the getting ready for the day, getting ready for school. It was all anticipation and joy.”

He realizes that the grief process will take time.

“There is a sense in which grief and the work around grief is pretty inward work, and I am an outward person, an extrovert, but I’m also a pretty soulful reflective person at the same time,” said Hussung. “And part of how those two things scrape against each other is that I’m absentminded about details of life and that has always been the case.”

Hussung was grateful for the supportive teachers who helped him cope before, during, and after his absence.

“(The teachers did) all the things that people do after a death—notes, other communications, and hugs in the halls, the how you doings, and prayers and prayers and prayers,” said Hussung.

He also expressed gratitude towards SLUH and the supportive community that surrounded him and his family.

“(SLUH) prayed for us, cared for us, did very practical things both in terms of arranging for me to be here and making sure our needs were meant,” said Hussung. “On every level the school has been generous supportive in institutional ways and in personal ways.”