The greatest treasure any family has is its children and when a family would send its child to St. Albert’s for first grade, it was a true leap of faith for the family and especially the mother and the father of the child. They had to know that there child was safe and would not only be treated kindly but guided in the right direction in their journey through life. St. Albert’s had a secret weapon when it came to 1st graders and her name was Sister Vincent. While all of the sisters were kind and loving, Sister Vincent had an incredible amount of patience as well and was perfectly suited to care for the young first graders. It should be mentioned that these classes were not small, but relatively huge. It was not unusual to have over forty 1st graders in a Sister Vincent class and to do that for one day, yet year after year, takes an extraordinary gift of patience, love, and kindness.
As children moved on from her class, she always remembered them by name. It does not take a mathematical genius to tell you that every three years she would have over 100 new students, but if you were to speak to a student in her class (or even after graduating from her class) they would claim that they were very special to Sister Vincent. Sister Vincent had that quality to make children feel special and surely that is a gift that is treasured in any society.
During Easter vacation one year a fourth grade girl named Dianna B was on the eve of a very important operation. Her father sensed the concern in his daughter and decided to throw Dianna a surprise party before the operation. Dianna’s father, like all the parents at St. Albert’s, was exceptional in his kindness and his time. You could always find him helping where help was needed; be it something in a classroom, as a volunteer fireman, or at the annual parish festival, you could always count on him to be there. When planning his daughter’s surprise party, he would give her a surprise that few others would have thought of, he invited her first grade teacher Sister Vincent. The party was quite a surprise and Dianna was having a wonderful time when there was a knock at the door and it was Sister Vincent with two other nuns (Sister Charlotte and Sister Linda) who had showed up at Dianna’s house for the party. Dianna had been out of Sister Vincent’s class now for three years and not only does Sister Vincent remember her but shows up at her party with a gift.
The gift was a photograph of Dianna’s entire first grade class with their hands over their hearts doing the pledge of allegiance. The girls were on one side of Sister Vincent and the boys on the other. The photograph was framed and was presented to Dianna as a gift. Sister Vincent and the other two sisters had lifted the spirit of a young 4th grader and presented her a gift that she still has to this day. Her father knew exactly who to invite to this party as only an involved parent would.
Sister Vincent was certainly the secret weapon of first grade! Not only for her work with 1st grade students and their families but for her work 25 years earlier when she worked with the French underground to defeat the Nazi’s during World War II.
Pictures of little friends attending the party are shown below and it looks like everyone is having a great time. At the time of the publication of this book (webpage in this case) these pictures were about 50 years old, but the memories very strong. How could it be anything less than memorable when you have the mayor in attendance, three nuns in attendance, and (of course) a bunch of little friends in attendance to make it a wonderful time.
