The credits are rolling,the school bell will ring for dismissal one last time and for more than a century of memories.
Remember,St.William Parish remains open.Masses every weekend. The school is closing.
I have been chronicling my memories as a student,employee and volunteer. And while I am not finished with those recollections, today requires something different.
A proper goodbye.
Those of us who walked those halls in any capacity can mourn the fact we will never be in those hallowed hallways again.
Remember the graduating class pictures from every year,every generation of students who benefitted from the quality education they received there?
Remember all the activity and buzz of the school hall? What a treat it was as a student, to escape the confines of the classroom to see a presentation,celebration or ceremony? After the school day that hall hosted
hundreds and hundreds of meetings and parties and fundraisers. The walls down there are embedded with memories of good times past. My parents had their 50th anniversary celebrated there. Clowning At the Corners and Raising the Roof and the local celebrities that visited our school down there. The St.Joseph tables,St.Rocco, just too much to recount.
In a previous chapter of this blog I mentioned the principals who served when I was a student and a few when I was employed there.
The best of the principals I worked with as an employee and as a volunteer was Mary Bauer. I have such great respect for this woman who led our school with class, grace and at times,a little humor. I could go to Mrs.Bauer with anything and she never failed to help... St.William related or life related. And she made it her business to patronize our fundraiser...to come back to school during her week off, to attend "Raising the Roof". She supported that event in person and deed. When I needed something as we prepped, I knew the principal would partner with me to make it happen. Tremendously supportive.
I experienced many school secretaries,all wonderful. But Mary Konopacki is my all time favorite. Her welcoming smile and easy going manner endeared her to students who needed her. She was their mom away from mom and I never heard one thing about her that wasn't positive.
When I worked there I would visit with her and we shared many laughs and stories. As our resident Cub fanatic I could tease her about their misfortunes which were many, but she was ever the good sport and a most pleasant presence.
And there's my great friend,Karen Zaccaria who taught their 37 years and will ring the final bell. Seeing her made St.William feel like home and to me,it was.
So many gifted and wonderful teachers whom I considered friends like Terry,Noelle,Cary,Mary ,Helen ,Laura and Marge and Karen.
People I worked with like Dan and Jim and Rich and Johnny and the "Manny" I mentioned in earlier chapters. Cooped up in a small room beneath the stairs marked "Employees", you learned a lot about a person.
The morning of 9/11 in that hall with students....I was sitting with the great priest Dan Brandt as his pager started giving us some reports. We watched a clown on stage with boxes. Not knowing the magnitude of what was going on we laughed and warned the clown in giggley whispers not to open the box just in case..
Later we learned the magnitude of what had happened and to this day Fr.Dan and I exchange 9/11 texts of rememberance of that morning in the school hall.
Mrs.Bauer and Secretary Mary led the school with strength and courage that day in an unprecedented situation.
In the final years of its scholastic life , the school was sheperded by Principal Jennifer Brown-Frazzini who I have only recently come to know. The St.William community owe her gratitude for seeing this treasured facility through its final days. How bittersweet this must be for her. Thank you Principal Brown-Frazzini.
The doors of St.William,a place I can see from my house, will always live in my heart. It has been part of the rhythm of life in a community that will be much poorer for its closing.
I don't know what will become of the buildings nor how long those two buildings will be empty. But our hearts will always be full and our memories warm and the spirit of the school with us for all time.
Farewell dear St.William.
