​​Teacher Reads to Students on Facebook Live 1 Day After Brain Surgery: 'I Wanted to See You'

K.D. Meucci
K.D. Meucci

WTAE-TV Pittsburgh

A dedicated teacher in Pennsylvania had her students on her mind even while recovering from brain surgery.

Just a day after undergoing a procedure to remove a brain tumor, K.D. Meucci — a fourth-grade teacher at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Bethel Park — did not miss story time with her online reading group and appeared on Facebook Live to read to her students, WTAE-TV reports.

Meucci had set up the closed Facebook group years ago as a way for teachers and students to virtually meet and read bedtime stories together, according to the news outlet.

"Of course I packed a book," Meucci said in a Facebook Live video filmed from her hospital bed on Thursday. "I knew I would be here on Thursday night, so I packed a book from the library."

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The book Meucci chose for the occasion was Mr. Walker Steps Out by Lisa Graff, a children's story centered around a human-shaped figure that lives inside a traffic signal box.

Appearing on Facebook Live, not only did Meucci hope her students would grasp the book's message of finding one's value in the world, she also wanted them to know just how much they meant to her personally.

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"Most importantly, I wanted to see you [for you] to see that I'm OK. I look a little funky, but I wanted you to see and know that I'm OK," she told her students in the video. "I just want you to know that I love you and I miss you."

Meucci told WTAE-TV that doctors believe they have removed all of her tumor, which said was "probably benign."