J + S = Forever Together

Last year, I bought a "J" scrabble tile in honor of my mom. When our resident Catoctin artist finished painting it, she put it in my school mailbox. I found the receipt saying that I paid for it, but where was the tile? Hmmmm, the mailbox is only so big. After a lot of detective work by the upper administration, it was concluded that the tile shimmed it's way to the back of my mailbox, where there just so happens to be a gap in the wood that leads to the back of a concrete area behind the staff's mailboxes. After a top secret summit meeting with the higher ups, the idea of a demolition crew was considered to come in and tear down the entire wall with jack hammers to retrieve the $5.00 scrabble tile. It was unanimously decided that SOL's were getting ready to begin and the noise generated from the jack hammers would cause a test violation. The tile would just have to remain in the walls forever.

I found it quite ironic that a symbol that represented my mom would be in the walls of Catoctin until the very end. A piece of her was always going to be with me at school.

In my honor, a very thoughtful kindergarten teacher bought a "S" scrabble tile this past week. She went to my mailbox and purposely pushed the "S" tile to the back. Over the cliff of the mailbox it went to join my mom's "J" scrabble tile. She sent me this message, "It's done...a purple "S" tile is forever in the walls of Catoctin along with the one for your mom!"

Have you ever heard of people being so kind and thoughtful in your life? Taking the time each day to make at least one memory is what life is all about.

In the beginning of the year, a church group that adopted our school gave us a delicious breakfast. The pastor told us what our school meant to the members of his congregation. He said something that struck me profoundly, so much so that I wrote it on top of the legal pad that I had brought to the breakfast. He said, "People caring about people."

The bricks and mortar that binds the walls of Catoctin Elementary together, minus the crack in the back of my mailbox, holds within it what it truly means for "People caring about people".