Letter: The 45 who came home

Why wait for our 60th reunion? Most of Weston High School’s Class of 1969 are turning 75 years young. After months of planning and outreach, we gathered Sept. 25 and 27 to celebrate our 57th reunion. Even a nor’easter could not keep us from enjoying one another.

Friday brought us together at a classmate’s cozy home. On Saturday, student ambassadors showed us around the high school before we celebrated at the Art & Innovation Center, our old library. Sunday’s wind and rain sent a few diehards downtown for a farewell coffee.

At Saturday’s celebration, 45 classmates were with us only in memory. Their names appeared on a memorial board, and their absence was quiet, familiar, and their loss deeply felt. 

At the end of the night, something extraordinary happened. As we packed up, the board was tucked into a pushcart and wheeled outside. A powerful gust caught it. It did not simply fall over.

It took flight.

Witnesses watched it eerily rise higher than a utility pole, stay aloft, then turn toward Weston Center. Two classmates gave chase, but it disappeared into the darkness. Searches over the next two days failed to recover the board. Even a prayer to the patron saint of lost things went unanswered.

Of course, the wind had carried the board. But one has to wonder why it seemed to head toward Weston Center, through the landscape that had shaped us. Perhaps our 45 were not ready to be packed up and taken away. Perhaps they wanted to linger where we had grown up together.

Miraculously, the board was found in the garden beside the Josiah Smith Tavern several days later. It had stayed close to the heart of town. A fitting ending: Weston was still home, still holding a place for all of us, including our 45.

Michele Helgeson, WHS Class of 1969, Greenwood Road, Sudbury