Redwood Elementary School took a moment Tuesday to honor a teacher many loved and now miss.

Angela Wilson was the GATES teacher, or a teacher of gifted students, for fourth through sixth grade at Redwood for a year and half before she died, counselor Leslie Mobley said. Wilson was diagnosed with a rare lung disease called pulmonary fibrosis and had been in the hospital since early December before the passed in January, teacher Ashley Coomes said.

“She was an awesome teacher and the students adored her,” Coomes said.

The students, staff and faculty all miss Wilson and decided to commemorate her birthday, March 1, with a balloon release. Because of severe weather that was predicted for the area on Tuesday, the balloon release was scheduled for the day after what would have been her 30th birthday, Wednesday, March 2.

“We just wanted to show our appreciation for her and all that she’s done at Redwood,” sixth grade student Avery Mabe said.

During the ceremony, the entire school stood outside with balloons in hand as Mabe and classmate Kimberly Burton spoke about Wilson and how special she was to the school. Austin Moses then read a poem he wrote about the late teacher, and when he was done the entire crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to Ms. Wilson. At the end of the song the students released their balloons in the air with lots of cheers.

“She was always happy, never in a bad mood and she loved all the children,” Mobley said.

Mobley said Wilson looked forward to taking her classes on field trips and one of the last projects one of her classes worked on was a unit on photography. Burton said she learned a lot from Wilson including to always be kind.

“She was always happy and sweet even if she was sad,” Burton said.

Mabe agreed with her classmate that Wilson never raised her voice at anybody and was always in a good mood. Even other teachers had similar feelings about Wilson by remembering her upbeat spirit.

“She was always smiling. That’s what I remember. She was always happy,” teacher Misty Hossley said.