For three years*, between getting her Bachelors & starting work on her MSW, Mim was a houseparent at Girard College (1st grade - 12th, boarding), in charge of 1st graders.
Imagine being a 1st grader, living at school, away from your home (although often with other siblings in upper grades). Then, imagine having Mim for your houseparent. An experience I am absolutely sure they never forgot!
A recent group of Girard College students.
Beth Shellhammer, Mim's BFF, would be the best one for sharing memories of Mim at Girard - that's where the besties first connected. Was Beth a houseparent, too? I'm not sure. Another name I remember - Bill Kunz. Now, don't ask where that came from, but it just burbled up from ancient depths.
Only two things clearly stand out in my memories of Mim at Girard - Crazy Hat Day & the weekend she took her kids to Penny's farm, up near Kutztown, PA.
Crazy Hat Day - on that day, all the kids wore crazy hats. The kids had never experienced such excellent silliness. They LOVED it.
As for the get-away at Penny's... At first, the kids were as terrified of real, honest-to-goodness country living as rural kids would be visiting a big city for the first time.
Cows, chickens, the terrifying great unknown of seemingly endless fields & meadows that seemed to stretch out to forever - or at least to the country lane. Alien sources of lurking danger. But by the second day, the kids were old hands at doin' the country thing!
Danger! Danger!
Penny might have more memories to share. Wish I could find the picture of Mim sqwinched down next to one of her boys, the two of them the same height. Perhaps my favorite pic of her of all time.
To paraphrase the exchange between the McLaughlin lad & Mim, they never had a houseparent - or adult - like Mim in their lives before & I'm sure they never did again.
*CORRECTION: The original posting incorrectly pegged Mim as working one year at Girard. She worked THREE, between getting her Bachelors & working on her MSW.
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