Every weekday evening, Lara Beard, a special education teacher, walks the trails hidden within the trees at her home in Elizabethtown.
The golden, late-afternoon sun painted a warm glow over the fallen leaves crunching beneath her therapeutic clogs during one of her walks in October. Behind her, six cats and two dogs trotted along at her ankles.
“This is my favorite time of the year,” Lara said. “I wouldn’t trade this place for anything.”
Her students would not trade her for anything, either.
Students call Lara their big sister and friend.
When they are having emotional difficulties during a class, she sits down, places a gentle hand on their back and softly talks them through their dilemma. She assures them that they will get through this, and that they are not alone.
Lara teaches at James T. Alton Middle School, located on the outskirts of Hardin County. Her strongest interest is working with children who have autism and Asperger’s syndrome.
“I remember feeling just like them when I was their age,” Lara said. “I was exposed to the bad in the world at an early age, and I was often awkward and nervous in social situations.”
Lara strives to spread awareness of mental disabilities and help others understand what it means to live with these issues daily.
She knows what it feels like to be held back by health, whether mental or physical. She suffers from asthma, diabetes and cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that hospitalized her for 11 days in 2009.
While in the hospital, Lara’s students decorated her door, sent her flowers and called her numerous times.
“The kids keep me going,” Lara said. “I like them because I can be myself, just like when I’m with my animals.”
Her work with students, along with the bond she has with nature and her animals, help heal her body and soul. She surrounds herself with the things she nurtures, and, in the end, she cares for them as much as they care for her.
