Greg and Kelley French stood and reflected near a bulletin board outside Kelley's art classroom at Socastee High School.
The subject of the board was Cassady Jones-French, Kelley's 17-year-old daughter who died after a car accident on the day after Thanksgiving last year.
"Even though, physically, she's not here, everybody's thinking about her," said Kelley.
Reminders of Cassady's infectious spirit have popped up everywhere in Socastee--in car decals on Highway 707, to signs, t-shirts, and posters at football games this year. Cassady was a cheerleader, a soccer player, and was heavily involved in the school's DECA program.
"We'd rather talk about her every day, rather than pretend that she was never here," said Greg, who said students come into his science classroom all the time and want to talk about Cassady. "Every story just makes me laugh and cry all at the same time, because I can just picture her doing all these incredible, silly things," he said.
The Frenches say Cassady's birthday was tough at first--but then when they saw how many students showed up to school wearing green (her favorite color) and t-shirts with her favorite saying, "C'est La Vie," on it, they were heartened. The date, September 25th, also coincided with homecoming at the school.
"You have children, (and) you hope everybody likes her, and everybody did," said Kelley.
Mother also tried to comfort daughter when the young woman would try to tackle too much--hence her adoption of the French saying for "that's life."
"I was telling her, 'calm down, it'll be okay. Two weeks from now, nobody will remember about whatever,' went on," said Kelley.
The saying now appears on those countless colored t-shirts, with proceeds going to a scholarship fund in Cassady's honor.
Her friends say they miss Jones, but know that she lives on thanks to the shirts, the saying, and the unique situation that allows students to mourn with her parents at school if they need to.
"Getting a hug from Mrs. French a lot of times is like getting a hug from Cassady," said senior Jessie Richards.
"This semester, I have my first class with Mr. French," said senior Devin Tiernan. "Every time I'm in there, we talk about Cassady."
"When you walk through the hallways, you still kind of think she's there," said senior Taylor Banetten.
The family maintains a blog for Cassady and about her life, which is connected to the Socastee High School website. Click here to access the blog.
"When asked about Cassady, her friends say
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