Between Donna Macioce and Marti Wiehagen, thousands of young students have been educated over the course of 90 combined years.
But on the last day of class at Holy Family Catholic School in Plum on June 5, the two celebrated their retirement among dozens of students, colleagues and loved ones.
The hourlong ceremony featured stories and well-wishes from the school’s principal, Marie DiLonardo, as well as other teachers.
Macioce, who began teaching in 1980 at St. Joseph Catholic School in Verona before it merged with Plum’s St. John the Baptist Catholic School in 2020, was described as “tough with wit and humor.” Her colleague Mary Chirdon celebrated Macioce’s affection for her students and her kickball skills.
Holy Family teacher Mary Ann Harrington spoke about Wiehagen’s “calming effect” on those around her and the longtime teacher’s dicey relationship with snow.
The school, Harrington said, was built on Wiehagen’s “blood, sweat and tears.”
Retirement will be “bittersweet,” Macioce said, but she still plans to attend Mass and see her former students. On her last day, she said she’s thinking of “all the hugs” from her students over her 45 years at the parish.
She wept and smiled throughout the ceremony.
“It touched my heart big time seeing all the people that came,” Macioce said. “How can you express that kind of love?”
Though it was Wiehagen’s last day as a full-time educator, she plans to return to Holy Family intermittently as a substitute teacher.
During her retirement, she plans to travel with her husband. California is the first stop in her list, she said.
After the ceremony, both she and Macioce were swarmed by well-wishers offering hugs, cards and blessings. Wiehagen said it was a “sad but happy” way to end her day.
“I’m very sad. My heart is not ready to leave, but my brain says it’s time to go,” she said.
Both teachers, DiLonardo said, were “dynamic anchors” at their respective schools and proved to be integral during the parish merger.
“It kind of wove the fabric of the new school so beautifully to have two teachers who have been there so long to be part of creating the new school,” DiLonardo said.
The two, she said, will leave a legacy of “rigorous, faith-based learning” and “love and compassion” for students.
While students and teachers will head home for summer break, DiLonardo congratulated Macioce and Wiehagen on their “permanent summer break.”
