Military mom speaks to students about serving overseas
When the family of Master Sergeant Christina Walsh informed the Mater Christi School community that she was being deployed overseas at the beginning of the holiday season, word was spread and plans were made to help make her absence a little less stressful for the family.
Among the activities that the school community took on was providing hot meals for the family as often as possible. The girls’ teachers, Mrs. Leslie Sem and Mrs. Miranda McClellan, helped facilitate the project.
In February, the Walsh children, Isabella, grade 2, and Giuliana, grade 1, discovered that even though their mom would not be home with them on Valentine’s Day, they would be able to see and talk to her on Feb. 14. Through the magic of Skype the two girls, along with their classmates, spent about half an hour chatting with Master Sergeant Walsh, and when she informed them that her location was a secret, they asked many questions trying to guess where she was. The Mater Christi School community still doesn’t know to what country she was deployed!
She did promise the children that, when she came home, she would come to school for a visit.
Master Sergeant kept her promise shortly after returning home and, during the week of April 9, made arrangements with Ana’s and Bella’s teachers to visit the school. All of the first and second graders once again crowded into the second grade classroom, anxiously waiting to see their classmates’ mother in person. She arrived in her “everyday” uniform and spent about 30 minutes talking to the students about the duties of an Air Force sergeant.
The children (and adults in the room) were particularly tickled when she admitted that when she meets her husband, who is also in the Air Force at the base, she salutes him because he outranks her.
It was obvious that two little girls were thrilled that their mom was home and that she had come to school so their classmates could see and hear the person with whom they had visited on Skype earlier in the year.