The Tribute

Yesterday, I joined with over twenty other former Whitney Young teachers from the years 1971- 1979 to pay tribute to our principal for those years, Verna Adams.  I know that most of you who have paid attention to my blog from the beginning are aware of my admiration for Dr. Adams and that my tenure there was only from 1971 to 1974, but those were my formative years as a teacher.  Verna and the staff at Young were vital to my professional and personal growth.

The reunion was a direct result of this blog.  Susie Brown read the blog and contacted me about getting together and paying tribute to Verna.  She and I met to hammer out details, and she took it from there.  Susie has always been an action person.  It was her suggestion that connected me to North Side.  She handed me the phone number for her husband and told me to call him.  That was the first step that I took to leave Whitney Young.

She gathered teachers and staff from all of the years that Verna was at Young, but I was most impressed with the crew from my years.  Almost the whole first grade team was there: Becky Buse, Jan Little, and Dee Pennington.  Susie represented second grade, Sue Longsworth, Juanita Ellis, and Jane Grose, third grade, and Susan Brace fourth grade. Others would have been there, but they are all over the country at this point.  I was the only representative from the special areas from the first three years.

What happened from the beginning was magical.  Susie had us briefly talk about our experiences at Young and a little about what has happened to us since.  Well, little became more than a little quite quickly, but I don't think that anyone minded.  One by one, we heard stories about our experiences at Young, our absolute love and respect for Verna, and our accomplishments since we all left each other.

As I have said before, I believe in reunions.  It does something for the soul.  This day proved that and more.  I was sitting at the table next to Verna.  She was enthralled with each and every story.  She laughed heartily with some of the pranks that students had pulled over the years.  As we were leaving, she said over and over how much this get together meant to her.  What I also saw was what it meant to all of us.  It felt very right to pay tribute to this great woman.

She pulled me aside when I was getting my coat on.  She wanted to ask me about the IPAD that I brought with me.  I showed her pictures of my family, especially my grandchildren.  I saw the gleam in her eye.  She always loved the children.  She asked if I would give her a copy of my blog when it was finished.  She wanted to read my story!   That was when I realized that there was a better story to write, so next summer I will start to compile her stories.