On Dec. 7, 57-year-old Patricia Marren Colver, long-time paraeducator at Oak Knoll School, died in her sleep.

Patti, as she was fondly known, joined the Menlo Park City School District (MPCSD) in 2003 and spent most of her career at Oak Knoll in Menlo Park, with a year at Laurel's Lower Campus in Atherton in 2016. She completed a certificate of training in Foundations in Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2011.

Colver will be dearly missed by her family, friends and colleagues, some of whom this publication spoke to about a couple of weeks after her passing.

"We will miss her sweet smile, her gentle ways, her never-ending patience and her kindness to all," said her parents Marian and Bernie Marren. "We will miss her wonderful stories about her students always shared with love in her eyes. We will miss her short phone calls just to say hi and to check in on us."

Colver was always worried about her parents, especially her father, who has Alzheimer's disease, Marian said.

"She taught the family that each day should be a life lesson just as each day with her wonderful students was a lesson for her. Our cherished memories will be her love of family, her love of her students and her kind spirit no matter the situation," said Marian, who said Patti would like to be remembered for being a loving wife, caring daughter and sister and friend to all.

"Her gentle demeanor endeared her to all she met. Most of all I think she would like to be remembered for making an impact on many students in a loving, caring way," she added.

At MPCSD's Learning Centers, Colver worked closely with the most vulnerable students, who have special needs.

Oak Knoll Principal Alicia Payton-Miyazaki said Colver was "a quiet hero" who will never be forgotten by the students she helped.

"Her students will always remember her remarkable kindness, steadfast support, and commitment to them," she said. "I know it seems small but watching her greet students in the morning in our car line, and often being the first face that students see welcoming them to our campus, is how I will always picture Patti."

Jennifer Kaufman, learning and inclusion specialist at Oak Knoll, who has also been a dear friend of Colver's for the last 12 years, said: "Patti had a way with her students — mostly younger ones who required a lot of patience."

For a paraeducator, a large part of the job is about building trust and making connections with students. Kaufman particularly appreciates these qualities because she herself is mother to a student with special needs.

"With our students with unique needs, Patti was able to patiently plan out a lesson plan only to have to pivot and attempt a different plan," she said. "There are days when students are on their game and compliant and eager to complete their work. Then there are those days where you just know that today is going to be one of taking the student's lead ..." By the latter, she means either turning to a different curriculum or just sitting on a chair, snuggling and reading a book while trying to have the student read sight words.

Kaufman fondly recalled an anecdote that highlights Colver's professional skills as well as her generosity of time: "Patti spent an entire day walking with her student. It was going to be a day where little 'academics' would be done, but the student, thinking holistically, needed to just 'chill' and Patti, all 5 feet of her, would swing with her student, walk around and just 'be.' She was good at that."

Before the two worked together at the Oak Knoll, they were both paraeducators at Laurel School. To Kaufman, Colver was the ultimate team player.

"(She was) willing to come in and take any student or teach any of the students on my caseload," Kaufman said. "Never once did Patti balk at my sometimes difficult requests, she just did it. In all the years that I have been in education, I never had a person so willing to do anything to help out a colleague."

Kaufman fondly recalls some of Colver's adorable quirks, like her startle reflex.

"A startle reflex is often seen in babies — when they are sound asleep or calm and a loud noise startles them and they raise their hands in a startled, protective motion," she said. "I would laugh and remind her that she worked in an environment that had 700 students — all coming and going, loud and not, big and small ..."

That wasn't the only running joke the two shared. "Another funny thing about Colver was that she was always cold. She would be layered even in hot weather..." she said.

Outside of work, Colver was a fan of college basketball, an enthusiastic cook and a woman of faith.

Patti Colver is survived by her husband, Jeff Colver, her parents, Marian and Bernie Marren, her brother John (Lynda) Marren and their four children, brother Robert Marren (Amy) and their three children, sister-in-law Carla Marren and her three children. She was predeceased by her oldest brother Thomas Marren. n