As for making those EW connections, it seems as if every “innovation” I think up in my classroom has an antecedent in my experience at Emma. Teaching math again this semester at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville, I was mindful every day of the wonderful time I had studying geometry with our beloved Anja Greer (Bankoski.)

Ever since the topic of our rings came up on this blog, I have been wearing mine more frequently. I love it when my students ask me about it.

I just read in the Winter/Spring 2009 EMMA about The Fellowship of Rings idea. Intriguing.

For many years after graduation I didn’t even look at my ring. Then I returned to school for the first time for our thirtieth reunion (fabulous!) and wore my ring then. Now I rarely take it off — not only because it’s beautiful, but because it reminds me that I earned it and that I’m proud of my school.

I’m torn about what to do with it after I’m gone. At present, I have no grandchildren. The idea of offering my ring to an EW girl is appealing… but I’m not ready to part with my ring anytime soon.

At a dinner party in Albany a couple of months ago, hosted by a friend who is not connected to Emma, a fellow alum recognized my ring and we had a great talk about mutual friends and shared experiences.

A bit further afield, I ran into a fellow alumna in Burkina Faso, West Africa, when I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. We likely would never have known this about one another. Jennifer Taylor ‘84 was our Assistant Peace Corps Director for Administration and as such was tasked with collecting our passports and immunization cards on our first day in country. I handed her my old Emma Willard immunization card (which I still have) and we discovered our shared alma mater! Talk about a small world.

Flu ran through the school. The dress rehearsal had a full cast. The first performance I think was pretty complete. Players were dropping like flies in front of the parents.

I had a vicious case of bronchitis and lost most of my voice–devastating because it meant that I could not sing in Vespers, heartbreak to this day. My dear friend Anja Stehr, a day student, was sleeping on my floor, dosing me with Robitussin when coughing fits overwhelmed me at night.

I played one of the lords and Wendy Calhoun was my Lady. A few times students were simply too ill to go on and whispered commands from off-stage were passed from the High Table down through the guards and other characters so the relevant actors could ad-lib their way around missing lines.

At one point a musician — was it Terri Kessler? — simply keeled over. Mr. Dietel, the principal and a couple of fathers just walked over and carried her out.

I had only a couple of lines and swallowed chunks of bread to clear the phlegm and push the words out. More hits of Robitussin from my goblet helped. At the end of our dance, the pavonne, I bowed deeply and realized, at the nadir of the bow, that I just couldn’t get back up. Wendy, however, stood straight and strong and somehow leveraged me upright.

Coincidentally, the following year, when I was on E-
SU, a similar round of illness gripped the school in the days before Christmas break. The Christmas concert was canceled and those of us who were still upright were doing what we could for the younger girls. One night the headmistress, Miss Stratford, showed up on “Maids”, where we oldest girls lived, and ordered us to bring her our coffee mugs. She then poured a finger of excellent Irish whiskey into each mug and sent us off to get a good night’s sleep.

There are SO many reasons to love Christmas!

I plan on holding onto my ring as long as possible and, when the time is right, passing it down in my family. There are many people who have yet to learn the value of women’s education and I would like to use the ring as a symbol to make others aware of such a great cause.