By Maribeth Stratford Millar
Thirty-nine years. That’s how many years our three children have attended Bedford public schools. On June 7, our youngest child, Casey, will graduate from Bedford High School. It will be a bittersweet ending and, for Casey, just the beginning. We moved to Bedford in January of 1995, one month before the birth of our first child, Hailey. And, we never left. We immediately felt at home here. Neither of us is from Massachusetts. My husband, Jamie, was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. And, I was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduate school brought us to Boston, and the desire to raise a family outside of the city brought us to Bedford.
I often think about what I would tell a new family just beginning their journey. There are certain universal truths. It does all go by in the blink of an eye. And, it’s always hard to let your babies go. This is Casey’s last week of classes and, as he was leaving for school the other day, I said, “Each day you leave this week, a little piece of me dies.” Casey looked at me with bemused, twinkling eyes that betrayed only the slightest hint of incredulity. I could almost read his mind as he surely thought, “I cannot believe I have to put up with this.”
There are other bits of hard-earned wisdom that I would pass on, too. Like the fact that each day will bring new smiles, and fresh tears. There will be nights of homework where everyone in the house ends up crying and screaming. Bouts of illness will arrive like flash floods, decimate the entire family, and take weeks to recede. There will be lice. Yes, lice! And drama and heartbreak. An endless loop of “I don’t know how many trips” to Davis, Lane, JGMS or BHS, with forgotten lunches, assignments, or sports equipment. Summers that you never want to end, each one signaling growth and movement when all you want to do is freeze time. The teenage years, the ups and downs of adolescence. The friends lost and found. The snow days that let you all take a deep breath with the gift of much-needed downtime. This is all behind us now. And, I wish it wasn’t. But, I am happy that these days will forever be part of our family’s history.
We are grateful to the Bedford teachers and administrators who helped to raise our family. Our middle child, Evan, who is now 21-year old, has autism. Evan’s disability was and continues to be a challenge. But the Bedford Special Education Department did their best to make sure that Evan’s school days were unremarkable in their similarity to those of his brother and sister. There is so much I will miss that I honestly never thought I would. I will miss soccer games in the freezing rain, tennis matches in the hot sun, and hotly-contested basketball games in sweaty gyms with uncomfortable seats. I will miss music concerts, and history fairs, and Friday night football games. I will miss being the mother of students who live at home. I will miss the sound of Casey coming through the door after one practice or another. I will miss the unpredictability of dinners at 8 p.m. or 4 p.m., depending upon the evening’s activities. I will miss being part of a community within a community. I will miss the families that have taken the journey along with us.
When Jamie and I were looking at houses way back in 1994, we knew nothing about Bedford. In fact, we were mainly looking at houses in Lexington. The universe intervened, and it knew where we belonged. It was not long before we realized that Bedford had much to offer. A beautiful, natural, safe environment in which young families can thrive. A terrific public library. An annual day to celebrate “Bedford.” The best ice cream in the land at Bedford Farms. And so much more. When we bought our first house on Woodland Road, Jamie and I gave little thought to the Bedford school system. We were simply trying to get through the challenging days with infants, who soon became toddlers and young children, and then young adults. The Bedford schools were a gift that we never knew to ask for, but that we very much appreciated. We may have created Hailey, Evan, and Casey, now 23, 21, and 18. But, their years as Bedford students helped to mold them into the amazing people they are today. Thank you, Bedford, for taking us in. Thank you to the teachers at Davis, Lane, JGMS, and BHS, for your dedication and tireless devotion to your students. We, the Millars, are thirty-nine years in your debt.
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