SHE WOUND THE CLOCK

for Nancy Ragno, 25 years at L-S

"I, David Grace and his wife just had a baby girl - Rachel. Lisa as
long as you are picking a certificate up for Erica, would you mind
picking another one for David. Lori, would you please send a card.
Thanks."


On the wall hangs the old Sudbury
High clock that Nancy found
time to wind each week, before
helping to keep it all

running, those Morning Announce-
ments, the letters, twenty-five
years of ringing phones, or perchance
a student who stumbled in crying,

whatever the great river of the
school washed up on her desk she
dealt with, the million and ten
details, somehow managing to

keep perspective, never
forgetting to laugh at the
occasional foible or foolish-
ness in that knowing way

of hers, because she truly
saw it all, from the Sargent
years to present, and everything
in between, and those moments

with angry parents, keeping cool,
supportive...well, up to a point,
and then that little comment to you
in passing, and on to the annual

struggle with the graduation program,
so no child's name would get mangled,
not on that special day, and in the midst
of it all, in the non-stop flow of it all,

she still found time to care, that
Caring Committee of hers, in the
free moments she didn't have, in
order that a teacher's mother who

passed away would be honored or
a baby's birth be saluted, or a
memorial card or gift be sent off
somewhere, so we might remember

what's really important, and oh
what lessons she taught, not
least the lesson called
"Community."




All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
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