Calling her an angel of quiet strength for whom the “Kids First” public schools motto was no mere slogan but rather a credo inspirationally lived, more than 300 people led by the Lincoln-Bassett community celebrated the life of Andrea Caldwell Friday.
It was a life that clearly had touched the extended family of the New Haven Public School system. Mourners filled the Love Center Deliverance Ministry building on George Street off Dixwell, in the wordsof the hymn, with “echoes of mercy and whispers of love,” and with praise for Caldwell’s profound Christian faith.
Andrea Caldwell, 38, died on Oct. 24. She sent her three kids through Lincoln-Bassett, was a teachers’ assistant there from 1998 to 2006, and for the last year and a half until illness prevented her working she too had been, like her mother Florence, on the school’s custodial staff.
Ramona Gatison (left in photo), Lincoln-Bassett’s principal, said of Andrea Caldwell, “By ‘kids first,’ Andrea meant all the children of God, in other words, everyone, children and adults. She was so extraordinarily central to the family tone at our school. As is her mom. She frequently was the first person people met when they walked in.”
Gatison could have been referring either to Andrea, who died of cancer on Sunday. Or she could have referred to Andrea’s mother, Florence Caldwell, a longtime custodian at the school who was also president of the PTO and central to the parental involvement strategies at the school, said Patti Avalone (also pictured above), the former supervisor of Title One parental engagement activities.
“She had a special nature. She was such a peace-maker kind of person,” said Gatison, “a person who liked to bring others together.”
Caldwell’s gifts extended to school administration as well. “You know that our school is like a family,” said Gatison, one of dozens of speakers whose lives the Caldwells have touched, “and we can have good and bad days. More than once, Andrea would take me aside when, you know, I had reached a certain point, and she would say in that way of hers, ‘Come on now.’ I really believe she was one of those people sent among us to enable the rest of us to do our jobs in life better. We were urging her to go back to school to get her certification to become a teacher.”
It was not to be. The untimely death of Andrea Caldwell was preceded by the death of one of her children, Latonya, only age 12. She leaves, in addition to her mother Florence, two other kids, both Lincoln-Bassett graduates of course: David and Ashley.
The house of worship was filled with spontaneous expressions of pain. Minister Dorothy Greene, who led the service, repeatedly praised Jesus and Andrea Caldwell’s faith. She dramatically pointed to the Caldwell casket at the base of the dais and said: “That’s only a shell there. Andrea now has the spirit’s ultimate freedom. She’s no longer bound. Glory to God, she’s free.”
Gatison, echoing the theme, added “This is truly a homecoming and a homecoming is a reason for celebration.”
When Andrea Caldwell’s daughter died, a tree was planted in her memory on the Shelton side of the Lincoln-Bassett School. “We’re going to plant another tree in Andrea’s honor,” said Gatison. “Right beside Latonya.”
God needed an angel. My prayers are with the family.