Students surprise choir teacher with a performance of Amazing Grace after she beat cancer

Publish Date
Thursday, 17 November 2016, 2:18PM

A choir teacher who recently beat cancer was given quite the gift when many of her former students gathered to surprise her with a special performance.

Gabrielyn Watson thought she was going to a meeting at Chicago's Morgan Park High School earlier this month when one of her former pupils stepped into the hallway and started belting Amazing Grace.

The 59-year-old choir teacher was so surprised, she dropped to the floor and started crying, as more of her students joined in on the song.
 
Watson recently had to take seven months off of work to fight multiple myeloma but she is now in full remission. She has taught choir for the past nearly 17 years.

One of the former students who helped organize the performance, Peter Frank, was a finalist on season 10 of American Idol and says he owes his career to Ms Watson.

'I realized that I never really had a chance to let her know just how influential she was in my life,' Frank, who now lives in Los Angeles, said.

A 2005 graduate of Morgan Park, Frank says that one time Ms Watson gave him a tuxedo to wear to a chorus competition because he couldn't afford one.

'It's just great to feel loved and that what you do matters,' Ms Watson said. 'I love my students and I want them to have the best opportunities so that they can thrive.'


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