My community is full of families I have served over the last 20 plus years. I see folks in the grocery store or at the recreation center all the time. It’s nice and allows me to maintain those connections.
Well, my husband won an award at Middlebury College last year, and with covid subsiding, they were finally able to host a reception for all award winners over the last couple of years.
We park the car and begin to walk to the Axinn building. Along the sidewalk comes a mom and dad whose 2 kids were with me just before covid. We chat and then bump into another couple whose son was in my class so long ago that he’s almost finished college. We continue to the building and along comes another woman whose daughter was in the same class.
Upon entering the reception, I see another parent from that same class, as well as a parent of a child from the class just the year after. And then in walks yet another mom who had two of her children go through my classroom…almost all of these families were with me when I worked at a center, just one family was from my time in my own home program.
There were hugs and smiles and surprises and stories of their children who have all flourished in their schooling and are having all kinds of adventures.
And the recurring theme: thank you! We couldn’t have done it without you! And there were tears from one mom who expressed such appreciation for my reassurance that her child was safe and loved in my care.
Wow. Just wow! It was just so special and wonderful for me, and to see the connections that are still going so stronh between them all! And to hear that their children, though grown, are still very much who they have always been…I left the reception with a heart full of joy and gratitude. I’m so pleased to have had this surprise reunion!
JenniferCyrFamilyChildCare 