Judith Sheahan Lindgren

My husband and I married in 1968. Beginning that same year, I worked as a teacher and then elementary school principal until I retired in 2010. Since retiring, I have served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect. I also work part-time as a consultant to public school districts in the areas of teacher evaluation and instructional coaching as well as an adjunct college professor. Now, I am fully retired!

Our greatest accomplishment was raising a wonderful son, born after I turned 40. He has kept us feeling young.

I moved from Chicago right before my freshman year, so I began at ETHS not knowing anyone. My first day as a freshman was frightening and lonely. The school was so big and I tried to find my way around without looking at the floor plan I had been given. After all, I did not want to look like a freshman!

All morning, I fretted about sitting alone at lunch and planned to hide in a bathroom stall rather than sit in isolation. Then, something special happened...Sherrie Igoe came up to me after our first class session in Combined Studies with Mr. Carlson. "You are new here, right? Why don't you join me at lunch and I will introduce you to some friends. But, I don't want you to steal any boyfriends!" What an act of kindness! Sherrie tells me that she doesn't remember this, but I do and still find her to be the same outgoing and generous person she was in the fall of 1960, not to mention funny!

To this day, Sherrie and I are still friends and I have shared this true story with my students over the years as a way to promote kindness. Go out of your way to be friendly, especially to those who are alone. You never know--you might make a life-long friend.