Like many who came to Chapel Hill for college, the Lexington native grew fond of the town and stayed put after graduation. But jobs in her field -- media production -- were in short supply.

To make ends meet, Griffith accepted a position as a Chapel Hill-Carrboro teacher assistant, and discovered a vocation.

Rashkis Principal Deshera Mack, hired Griffith at Seawell Elementary eight years ago to work with exceptional children, students with learning problems and others who needed specialized help outside of the regular classroom.

"We immediately saw something in Meg," said Mack. "She is very soft-spoken, not the kind of person who usually needs or gets attention for her work. But she has a passion and love for students, and an innate creativity that comes from within. She lights a fuse in the kids she meets and makes them believe in themselves. Meg is a born teacher."

I met Griffith, now 31, in 2001, when my family moved to Chapel Hill.

My older daughter came home from her first week in fourth grade with a grin and an announcement.

"I made my first friend today," she said.

When pressed to bring her new friend home for a play date, my daughter said Meg was "older," maybe in high school, and she helped the teacher in her math class. I thought we'd discovered our new babysitter.

When I met her myself, I described the small, athletic woman to my husband. "Think Meg Ryan with a nose piercing," I said.

Turns out all of us underestimated Griffith's impact, and her importance to our lives.

Meg became a tutor to both of our girls, steering them through years of reading and math with a patience and consistency I lacked. (It seems that ADD doesn't fall far from the family tree.)

An artist in her own right, she encouraged the natural creativity in my daughters -- posters for science and social studies projects took on depths of color and drama with bold geometric shapes.

Meg never wrote in cursive, preferring strong printed letters, perfectly formed, that revealed the writer's quiet self-confidence.

During this time, I'd often run into Meg when I'd go to school for volunteer work. Once, on a gentle spring day, I saw her lying on the sweet, new grass with a student who was struggling to read. The little boy, also stretched on his stomach, shared the book with her as he tested out each new word.

With the encouragement of Mack and her colleagues, Griffith completed a graduate degree in education at UNC-Greensboro and returned to Chapel Hill in 2005 for a classroom of her own. She also returned to our family.

But she'd also met a Chapel Hill man, Bill Palladino, 28, son of her Seawell friend and colleague, Linda Palladino, and Bill Palladino, assistant coach for the UNC women's soccer team. When the younger Bill left Chapel Hill for work with ESPN in Charlotte, we all knew by the contented way she talked about him, that it would only be a matter of time before Meg would follow.

We expect a lot of our teachers in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district. And often the work they do, the lives they change in subtle, but incremental ways, goes unacknowledged. My older daughter, once one of Meg's "exceptional children" is now a rising junior in high school, starting to think about colleges and careers. Her younger sister, another exceptional child, wants to be an OB-GYN or a fashion designer. I find their notes around the house, written in a strong self-confident print, letters perfectly formed.

And I've often thought about that little boy reading in the sun with Ms. Griffith, and wonder if the books he now enjoys conjure the scent of sweet, new grass.

Chapel Hill must let Meg Griffith go. No doubt she has new adventures in life, and teaching, to experience. But we will all miss her.

I will miss her.