June: High School Graduations

June, 1995

My mother would be so proud if she were alive today.  Her parents died before she was 16 and therefore she was not able to finish High School.   Instead she and her younger sister, Adelaide, moved to St. Louis and lived with Mary, their older married sister.      They attended Mrs. McKinsey’s Secretarial School, since it was necessary to earn their livings. My father graduated from Nauvoo High School in 3 years and went on to St. Louis University Dental School. Education was a most important aspect of life at our home.

My brother, Richard, graduated from Christian Brothers College prep with high honors.  It was a  dramatic graduation since the school was a popular Catholic Military Academy. My brother was the Salutatorian and also one of the top student commanding officers. He received a full scholarship to St. Louis University.

Since I always tried to equal the feats of my brother, I too graduated with top honors from Ursuline Academy with a full scholastic scholarship for Webster College in a suburb of St. Louis.

Now–I shall skip over the scholastic accomplishments of my children and become a bragging Grandmother! This June, Mike and I attended two High School graduations of our grandchildren, Laura and Gerard.

On the first Saturday in June, Laura graduated from St. Bonaventure Catholic High with a 4.2 grade point average. She is my daughter Barbara’s first born.  Laura attended 9th and 10th grades at Villanova Catholic High School in Ojai (on scholarship), then transferred to a school closer to her home, St. Bonaventure in Ventura. The graduation ceremonies were a source of pride to us.  Laura opened the graduation ceremonies with a speech as Salutatorian and her godfather and uncle, Fr. Dick, spoke as a representative of Cardinal Mahoney and conferred the diplomas. Laura received many awards and many universities offered her scholarships, but she decided to accept admission to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo College of Architecture and Design since art, math, and English were her favorite subjects.

The following week, Eileen’s second son Gerard graduated from Thousand Oaks High School. Graduation of 520 students was scheduled in the outdoor football stadium. It rained all day until 5 p.m. Then the ceremony was able to go forward at 6 p.m. Gerard had a 3.5 GPA. He received the Bank of America achievement award, National Hispanic Scholar Recognition Award, Conejo Valley Little League scholarship award, and a certificate award in Home Economics! This boy is a Judo and Wrestling star!  With his sense of humor he said to me, “I loved the Home EC classes since I was one of only two boys in a large class of girls!”