‘Our world stopped.’ Lexington vigil recalls middle school teacher Judy Stacy

Community members gathered Wednesday night for a vigil honoring a Lexington middle school teacher who was killed in a traffic accident last Friday.

Dozens of students, faculty and friends gathered at the school and wore T-shirts and held signs in memory of Beaumont Middle School teacher Judy Stacy. Stacy was hit and killed by a tractor-trailer while driving home from Daytona Beach with her husband, Phillip, and two daughters, Madison, 21, and Claire, 17, in Georgia last Friday.

“Our world stopped, we don’t really know what to do or how to do it,” Madison said as she huddled next to Claire. “It’s going to be finding a new normal and starting to live a life without our mom at such a young age, which I never thought we’d have to ever cope with.”

Stacy had taught at Beaumont for the past nine years. Students hugged the family and Madison expressed her gratitude for the support seen in the community and on social media.

“We lost a mom, but other people lost a teacher and a friend,” Madison said.

Stacy’s two daughters recalled breaking down as they walked the school’s halls toward their mom’s classroom for the first time since the accident. Her memory will live on because of the “heart and soul that she put into these walls and these kids,” Madison said.

“I thought before all this that we were living every moment to its potential and just cherishing it, but once this happened, everything just seems like I could have done it 10 times better and bigger,” Madison said.

Stacy’s eldest daughter stood strong as she welcomed the crowd.

“I’m here because this is how my mom would want us to be presenting her,” Madison said. “She was our light and our world and our sunshine.”

This story was originally published July 12, 2017 at 9:59 PM with the headline "‘Our world stopped.’ Lexington vigil recalls middle school teacher Judy Stacy."