One year ago today, our friend, Rachael Simms passed away – June 26, 2021. Over the years, she had been a board member, a collaborator and one of the Teamwork Wins’s supervisors of our ESY program.

To be honest, it had taken this long to write about her because I guess I didn’t want it to be real.

Anyone that knew Rachael, remembers her sassy personality, sense of humor, continuous ideas and her laughter.

I remember many texts and phone calls over the years, like “Call me, girl! I have an idea.” or “I want to run something by ya.” or I want you to meet this woman, she’s amazing!” or “listen, lady, hear me out!!!” “Girl, you’re like butta” “Good one” she would say after she or anyone else would burp. We loved each other, cried together, fought with each other, as well as hashed things out together.

She always cracked me up from the moment that I met her. That meeting was at our first Teamwork Wins ADHD conference in 2003.

Anytime that I needed her expertise, Rachael was always willing to jump on a zoom or phone call to share her knowledge of Asperger’s and HFA. I was during these collaborations that we did our magic together.

Let’s talk about her magic – the way she handled and spoke to the young children and teens on the Spectrum as well as spoke at the TWW conferences and workshops. I was amazing, intriguing and rejuvenating!

I remember our first collaboration with Gwyneth Mercy College. In the beginning of my career, I had some anxiety about getting up in front of a big crowd. When she sensed that in me, she was like, “I’ll do it…step aside, chickie, you stand next to me. I’ll show you how it’s done. She would gently grab the mic and start to entertain.

She was so gracious about inviting be to her school everts, outside of TWW. I remember watching her talk to a room full of Directors of Special Education. It was like she had just met the at a party – so comfortable, so smooth – and then would look at me and say, “What do you feel, Adele, did I get all that right?”Then give me the space to share the depth that I knew. She would learn from me and I learned from her, always.

We shared a love for music and our love for the theatre, talking about “Barbra,” the movie, “Pitch Perfect” or she would text me about a TV series, or a Wizard of Oz thing or a “Back to the Future” anything. She bought me a T-shirt that said, “Tell Marty not to go back to 2020.” A couple of weeks before she passed, she and I watched the movie, “Infant Family” about the foster care system, and she was like, “Adele, someone has to help these children?”