My Beloved Alma Mater

Our high school class was huge. Somewhere between 700 and 800 kids. One would think it impossible to know more than two or three dozen of the kids. But, our class was extraordinarily tight. There were cliques, for sure. There were jocks and nerds and stoners…but most of my friends were happy to just love everybody.

We have a group of people who adopted one of the big flower beds in the City Park. For over ten years, they have religiously tended that garden, making it one of the showpieces at the entrance of the park. One very dedicated classmate has taken care of the memorial and flower fund for as long as I can remember. We send her checks periodically to fill the coffers and there has never been a former classmate go without something from us to show their family they have not been forgotten.

Somewhere along the line, one of our fellow classmates started a Facebook page for our class and that really started the ball rolling. We were able to reach out to our classmates all across the country and we became even tighter. As time went on, we started losing more and more people and it occurred to me that, should the page administrator pass away, no one else could access our page and that wouldn’t do. I reached out to the administrator..a gal from my home room…and she added me as a page admin. I in turn added another friend who was willing to help out. Having three admins just made more sense to us and it’s gone smoothly ever since.

My main duty is keeping a close eye on two of the most important files of the page… “Where Are You/They Now?” and “Gone, But Not Forgotten.” If I don’t catch news of a death, or things get hectic and I don’t get the pages updated in a timely fashion, I can count on my friends to be sure I’m up to speed. Over the years, I’ve had people say they wish the lists had pictures to go with the names on the list. Not everyone has their high school yearbook anymore and as we age, our memories fade.

We lost three classmates in the span of the last two weeks. I was going through my list yesterday and one of the things on it was to update the page. Since I was going to be on there anyway, I decided to start on the Memorial Wall and add photos from our yearbook. As of today, we have lost 139 classmates, and I at least wanted them to have a photo by their name. So, I sat down and got to work. 

Mr. FixIt went to town yesterday to help his friend Joe fix a toilet. I knew I’d have a quiet house in which to work. By 10:00, I had that list complete. I will plug along and get photos on the other list as I have time. But, I felt really good getting that part finished. That’s just one thing checked off the list. Today’s a new day…and I’ll be checking my list to see what I can get into next!

❄️

”As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:“

1 Peter 4:10 ESV