By Michala Medved and Sarah Shaw, staff writers

While many of the students recently had a break from their regular Spanish class schedule, they also had some time away from their teacher. Instead of the normal routine of taking notes and doing workbook activities, the students were assigned to watch the movie “The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World,” and complete a packet on it. This took place while Spanish teacher Mrs. Janyce Brawn was gone for two weeks for knee surgery.

“It was called an Arthroscopic Knee Surgery. I had a torn lateral and medial meniscus, a cyst, and arthritis that the surgery repaired,” said Mrs. Brawn. Though the surgery may sound super unpleasant, she only has three small scars from it. “I had to be knocked out and under anesthetics. It was considered a regular surgery.”

Although she has some pain and swelling from the surgery, she has a great range of

motion for having the surgery just weeks ago. “I had to take it easy for two weeks and do some specific exercises that they gave me,” she said.

In hopes of being well enough, Mrs. Brawn, who is retiring at the end of this year,  scheduled the surgery so she could participate in some of her favorite work-related activities. “It has been a long process, but I wanted to be better for our Spanish club field trip,” she said.  

While she was at home, Mrs. Brawn spent a lot of time reading and posting book reviews on Facebook and Goodreads. She also created twelve illustrations for The Time of Signing Poetry Magazine, which was just published.

After her retirement, she plans to continue reading and illustrating, as well as finishing her novel, David and the Dranosaurs. Mrs. Brawn is anxious to start traveling with her husband in their new RV after she has healed. “The best is yet to come. Things will get better not worse,” said Mrs. Brawn.