I missed Bishop Maginn High School a lot while I was gone. In a way, this is my family, this my home, this is where I belong. I haven’t seen these people or the students for four months.

We came to buy lunch.

Maria and Zinnia and I ordered from a nearby Thai restaurant and had the food delivered. Principal Mike  Tolan, Sue Silverstein, my friend, and the Art and Theology teacher and School Secretary Christine Cioffi met us.

I was overjoyed to be there. I wanted to celebrate the extraordinary, sometimes heroic work these people did on behalf of all their students, but especially their graduating seniors.

They have exhausted themselves giving them the graduation they deserve, I’m invited and so is Zinnia, we’re going to be at the graduation ceremony at the Albany Cathedral at the end of this month.

Some of the students came in to pick up their caps and gowns and Jesmyn Ward’s book Navigate Your Stars. Todays’ re-connection meant a great deal me and to Maria.

Zinnia was her usual sweet self, at home wandering these corridors and dozing under the table while we ate. We will be back throughout the summer and in the  Fall.

I was very happy to see these people, we have done some amazing work together and I will never get over their love and concern for the children in their care.

On the way out, we all gave one another the Caronavirus Hug, immortalized in Maria’s sketches.