In the pouring rain, I trundled off to St. Catherine's church for the annual event of Senior Presentation. I had not been there since 2005 when Justin was 'presented' with his class to the student body in this official manner. According to the school calendar, the time for the service was 10:00 a.m. but mass was still taking place. Another lady and I were there, waiting, when the photographer told us she just called the school and they said it began at 11.
I know I was not mistaken and the other lady also said she saw 10 a.m., saying her son had to be at school at 9:00 a.m. for rehearsal, as he was in the choir. Oh well, I just went back out into the rain and listened to the radio in my car until I saw people streaming out from mass, and other people began to arrive. Back in I went through the raindrops. So glad my hair adapts well to being wet!
I sat in the back, as was my plan, and watched the kids stream in and go through their rehearsal. This was the upper grades to begin with, as the buses had to go back to school to reload. One of the faculty members came over immediately to speak with me, giving me a warm hug as she watched my tears fall down. She was so glad I came and spent a good deal of time with me. We had built her home many years ago, when Timmy was one year old, and her youngest was two. He graduated last year, and remembered me, somehow. Probably because we lived in the same community and my kids were in school with them...
A little bit later, Amy came back with a gentleman in tow, saying he wanted to meet me. It was the new headmaster, Mr. Ellison. I was so flattered that he wished to meet me, and put a face to the name. He was most gracious. A while after him another teacher came over and sat down with me. She told me that there is going to be a function in May sometime where Timmy will be remembered as part of something done for the Seniors. She asked me if I had some special photos or anything to share with them, she promising to take very good care of them. I said I did have some taken in his classroom, where his shoes are on the wrong feet (as usual).
In addition to those, I am going to do something with the piece of artwork which Timmy had begun but his classmates completed, and signed. Dee might be able to help me with that part of the project. The teacher told me that after New Year she will get in touch with me, or one of the others on the committee will, with a firm date, in case any of my family wanted to attend. That sort of startled me, because I never even thought about the fact that otherwise they might be coming down for graduation....I weep....
I recognized only a couple of the names from the program, and some of them appear on the perimeter of Timmy's artwork. Some of the kids would have been in another class and not signed the piece. One young man had left St. Johns for a few years but came back for his Senior year. He had attended Childtime with Timmy and lived in our neighborhood in The Preserve. My friend, Jen, worked as the nanny for this young man and his brother, so I got to spend time with him when he was growing up. That was nice.
See the girl in the front row looking at Justin's shoes?
I knew the couple in front of me through my neighbor, Travis. Rob is our State Senator, and Travis is the State Representative for our area. It was nice to see Rob and Jennifer again (I frequently see them out and about). Their son was among the Seniors, and it appeared had grabbed the wrong blazer this morning, as his shirt sleeves stuck out two inches below his jacket. Jennifer was horrified, and was going between laughing and crying as he walked down the aisle. Afterward I told them about Justin's white shoes for graduation mishap and had a good chuckle over that. I cautioned them to pay special attention to the paperwork that comes home for graduation tuxedo requirements, and note that zoot suits are NOT among them!
