5/2/25 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott
Photo Caption: The Class of 2025 in Earlier Days
Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,
No one is irreplaceable. Please repeat that after me to help me believe it. No one is irreplaceable. Really? Are you sure? No one is irreplaceable.
Now try and say that when I tell you that our long-time school nurse, Gina Connor, is retiring at the end of this school year. If anyone is an exception to that adage, she surely must be.
Gina has been our school nurse since 1995. In that time, she has healed hundreds of little bodies. From distribution of ice packs to calling the emergency squad for broken limbs we have relied on Mrs. Connor to be there. She has also healed many bruised feelings and counseled students who are feeling bad about life, about school, about home, about themselves.
She takes each student’s complaints seriously and listens carefully to determine the extent of her treatment. Sometimes the cure is to rest on the famous little blue cot in her office. Sometimes it is a drink of water or a snack that, more times than not, Gina has purchased with her own money. Sometimes the cure is simply to have a sympathetic ear. If and when she has to call home, I have heard her across the narrow hallway telephoning parents with a reassuring voice and calm demeanor. Everyone feels better when they leave Mrs. Connor little room, even teachers.
Like everything in education there are forms and reports and mandates in the world of student health. Gina is meticulous in making sure that these are done efficiently and on time. Vision and hearing screenings, bugging parents to get their vaccination records and check-up forms completed and turned in, hounding me to complete those forms which need my signature. And she does it all with a smile and the patience of Saint Mother Theresa.
She has reassured parents that lice is indeed not a reflection of the cleanliness of their homes. She watches the distribution of medicine to students like a hawk. She has every teacher ready with emergency cards and inhalers when a field trip is occurring, even when she is given little advance notice. She makes sure that we have AED’s in both the school and the church. She makes sure that the batteries are fresh and that we are all trained on how to use them. She does all this and much, much more with a smile, and patience, but relentlessly, so that the health and safety of our students and staff are a top priority.
When Covid hit the world and we had to make plans for being open, Gina was there with us to make that happen. In the early days, when each positive case was cause for much paperwork and reporting and tracking when it was safe for students or staff to return, Gina kept us all straight.
When she suffered her own personal tragedy, the death of her son, Patrick to cancer, she allowed us to grieve with her and showed us how a person of faith deals with every parent’s worst nightmare. And although her pain and sorrow remain with her, Gina has always been there for us, as a care giver of the heart and the soul and the body.
Happily, we do have a replacement for Gina for next school year. Molly Halpin, an Immaculate Conception/Bishop Watterson graduate, is coming on board to continue Gina’s mission. Let us make this last month for Gina one of appreciation for her by all of us staying healthy and accident free and let us welcome Mrs. Halpin to our school community in August.
Jim Silcott
