By Mike Pound
CNHI News Service

JOPLIN, Mo. — For some reason, the juxtaposition of seven or eight kickballs scattered near the demolished St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School, where Judy Clarkson was searching her third-grade classroom for her “nun collection,” made me think of Ames, Iowa.

When I was in second grade at St. Cecilia Catholic School in Ames, a nun working playground duty was hit in the head with an errant kickball. The force of the ball made the nun’s head shake to the left while the top of her habit shook to the right.

We thought it was a miracle.

Thinking about that on Wednesday morning made me laugh.

A few seconds later, Cassie Patrick walked up to Judy.

“Have you seen our church?” Cassie asked and started to cry. So did Judy.

And so did I.

There’s been a lot of that going on lately. One minute everything is OK, and the next minute you find yourself crying for no apparent reason.

I’m told that’s normal.

After brief tears, Judy — referring to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which also was destroyed in Sunday’s tornado — said to Cassie: “It’s fine. It will be back.” 

Judy turned her attention back to her missing nuns. A minute later, Judy’s sister-in-law, Susan Horner, who was helping in the search, found an orange figurine of a Catholic sister.

“Oh, but it’s broken, and here’s another one. She doesn’t have arms,” Susan said.

“That’s OK. They’ll be injured nuns,” Judy said, and laughed again.

Judy has taught at St. Mary’s for 32 years. She was going to retire this year but at the last minute decided to come back for another year. And now the school where she has spent most of her adult life is in ruins.

It’s a tough deal. But as tough deals go, this one has an upside. The tornado, said Judy, could have hit while kids were in the school.

“We’ll get through this,” she said.

A few debris-ridden classrooms away, Emily Lone and her husband, Scott, were searching the fifth-grade classroom where she has spent her entire eight-year teaching career.

Emily was looking for personal items. Most of the stuff in her classroom eventually can be replaced, she said. But a few things cannot.

Specifically, she was looking for an American flag in a glass case and a stool. 

She didn’t find the stool, but she did find its cushion. The stool was a gift from the third class she taught at St. Mary’s. When they presented it to Emily, all of the kids in the class signed the stool’s cushion. The cushion, which was “a mess” when she found it, is what Emily was after.

“I’m keeping it,” she said.

She didn’t have as much luck locating the flag.

During Emily’s first year of teaching, her class sent cards and letters of support to local troops serving in Iraq. The troops sent the class a flag as a thank-you. The students signed the flag, had it placed in the case and took it with them when they moved on to St. Peter’s Middle School. When they graduated from St. Peter’s, they took it with them to McAuley Catholic High School. When they graduated earlier this month, the students gave the flag to Emily.

Emily didn’t find the flag on Wednesday, but she’ll keep looking. She hopes it’s buried under some debris toward the back of the classroom. 

St. Mary’s is a lot like the Catholic schools I attended. In tough times, folks tend to rally around one another.

That’s why I’m not too worried about St. Mary’s. Sure, for all intents and purposes, the school and the church are gone. But the people are still there, and that’s the most important thing.

Like Judy said: They’ll be back.

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Mike Pound is a columnist for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe. Contact him at mpound@joplinglobe.com.