Fortitude and Resilience

Ken's 50th high school reunion was held a couple of weeks ago. This event was a full year in the planning, and Ken did his part in seeing that the event was a big success. All former graduates of the class of 1960 were invited, as were as many of their teachers who are still "here."

The high point of the event was, I'm quite sure, the visit from Mrs. C, who had been the English, French and Latin teacher of many of those there. In addition, I had worked with Mrs. C during my first two years of teaching and hadn't seen her in 40 years.

When Mrs. C arrived, she promptly announced that she could stay "only 30 minutes," because she had other things that needed to get done that day.

I was amazed to hear her call her former students by their names as they walked up to give her a hug and a kiss. When I approached her, I said, "I'm Jean...." She quickly set me straight with, "I know who you are!"

Mrs. C was certainly independent and self-sufficient when I knew her, and those qualities have hardly diminished over the years. She lost her husband this past year, and since she and he were the same age, that puts her current age at 96 or 97.

She didn't wear her teeth to the reunion. She explained that she does, indeed, have teeth, but they hurt her mouth, so they were "home in a jar."

After thirty minutes had passed, Mrs. C, as promised, got up and headed for the door. What left the crowd speechless, though, was watching her get into her car, back it up, pull out onto the road, and head home!

It hadn't occurred to us that she'd driven herself to the reunion, but looking back, it didn't surprise us, either.