Heartfelt sendoff held for teacher stepping down to fight incurable nerve disease
By Sydney Ferguson
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TOWANDA, Kansas (KAKE) — As one door closes, another is opening for a USD 375 music teacher facing a serious health issue and stepping away from work to address it.
Circle Teacher Heather Redondo says that at 39 years old, her life has seen many chapters. Born in Hawaii to a Pianist mother, she’s been a college music professor, an opera singer in New York and Wichita, and now teaches music in Towanda.
Each has been a chapter rich in its own right and almost always connected to music.
“I really believe in the power of music to heal and to inspire us in our lives. It has inspired me so much,” said Redondo.
Friday, she was moved to tears by the sound of her girls’ choir singing Emily Dickinson’s poem “Heart! We will forget him!”
“What stuck out to me today was just wow, goodbyes are hard,” said Redondo.
It was a day full of goodbyes for Redondo, as the opera singer and teacher is stepping down from her dream job as Vocal Music Director for the district’s 7th through 12th grade students.
“I’ve been living my very best life and living exactly how I wanted to live, how I always dreamed my life would be,” said Redondo. “And then this happened, and this is definitely, definitely the hardest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Redondo says what started as a limp that wouldn’t go away in November 2024 turned into the inability to move the toes on her right foot — then the need for a walker and wheelchair.
In January of this year, doctors diagnosed her with ALS — an incurable disease that slowly destroys the body’s nerves until a person can no longer function.
“I just felt completely crushed,” said Redondo. “What scares me the most is losing my voice.”
The voice that still charms crowds and instructs students, but more importantly, lulls her 4-year-old son to sleep each night and communicates with her husband.
Redondo says that voice has been her identity for much of her life and led her to teaching — a dream she’s now stepping away from to stare down a nightmare.
“It’s too soon, it’s too soon,” said a teary-eyed Redondo. “I had so much more I wanted to do with them.”
Students Jeromy Dufoe and Wyatt Soper, Senior and Teaching Assistant, say it’s been hard watching her health decline.
“It did kind of break a little bit of me,” said Dufoe. “It’s an emptiness I haven’t felt in a long time.”
“For her, all she is, is happy, so it’s like, it’s hard to see, said Soper.
Soper and Dufoe say it became their students’ mission to assist her in any way they could and keep her spirits up — the same thing she’s done for them in her two years as their teacher.
“She made me feel almost free,” said Dufoe. “I felt like I could do all these things that I had aspired to.”
Redondo says she finds peace in leaving work knowing she left a lasting legacy and did what she set out to do — create a safe space for her students.
Teaching Assistant and Senior Laykin Lipcott says this is their opportunity to remind her of what she’s taught them.
“She really helps encourage us to keep that passion and just not to give up on ourselves and to keep pushing through anything difficult,” said Lipcott. “I’m hoping that, you know, she just doesn’t ever give up on herself.”
“All I hope she can do is just trust in the Lord and make the best out of a bad situation,” said Dufoe.
Redondo says another fear is losing hope, but she’s fighting through that and others by leaning on her community — a community that’s rallied around her, raising almost $30,000 through GoFundMe to help her along her journey.
“I just appreciate that so much,” said Redondo. “It’s amazing to be able to share this with people, because so many people really do want to help and be a part of it with me.”
Redondo says her focus is on learning methods to delay the inevitable phases of disease that lie ahead of her and prolong her time here — long enough to make lasting memories with her husband and young son, stay in contact with her students, and continue to use her voice while she has it.
She says the two-to-five-year lifespan you see when searching “ALS” on Google doesn’t apply to her.
“I feel really strongly that I’m not done here, that I have a lot more to give and a lot more to do,” said Redondo. “I am afraid of losing my voice, but today I have a voice, and I can still sing.”
Redondo’s coworkers closed out her final day with a small gathering for teachers and students to say see her off. She ended the gathering with a rendition of “Homeward Bound.”
All day, she reiterated that this is only ‘see you later’ for her. Redondo says she’ll be singing with the Wichita Grand Opera at events on April 18th and 19th.
“I don’t know if this is my last opera. I hope it’s not, but if it is, I’m grateful that I could do it kind of where I started in Wichita, with the Wichita Grand Opera, where my husband and I met,” said Redondo.
She’ll also be singing the national anthem at the “Walk for the Cure” for ALS on September 19th and trying to put together a concert for late summer or fall. She’s promised to keep up with her students as much as she can.
“We’re going to remember each other forever,” said Redondo.
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