WATERVILLE — Birdean Flood wore a cap and gown for the first time in her life on Thursday night.
Before the ceremony, as she and her classmates sat in a Waterville High School classroom preparing to walk and repinning their flowers, Flood’s gown was itchy. She was worried about keeping her cap on. She’d been nervous about having to navigate too many stairs, but the rehearsal comforted her, as did having all her teachers around her.
When her father pulled her out of school at age 11, Flood, now 77, didn’t know if this day would ever come.
Flood, who goes by Birdy, grew up one of 11 siblings in Carmel. At school, she was good at math and science, and her twin sister was good at reading. They’d help each other out, and both did pretty well.
But when her dad pulled her out of school in the 1960s, Flood wasn’t upset. At school, she was bullied.
“With the name calling and everything that was going on at school, I was glad I was home,” she said. “I wouldn’t have to listen to them call me ‘sewage.’”
Instead of reading and writing, she spent her time helping her father in the woods, limbing trees. She was also in charge of firewood because her brothers weren’t around.
Later, she worked picking beans, peas, corn and potatoes, and eventually landed in Connecticut. Flood worked more jobs and got married. She worked wiring radios and had two children.
In her 30s, Flood decided to get her GED certificate. She couldn’t read or write well, and she wanted to show her sisters it was possible to go back to school. Of her 10 siblings, just one had ever graduated high school.
“I started in GED because they said it was quick and easy,” Flood said. “I found out it was quick, but not easy.”
When she was six credits short of her GED certificate, Flood’s mother got sick. Because no one else around her could read or write well enough to help, Flood moved in with her mother.
Back in Carmel, Flood enrolled in another adult education program in Bangor. Sometimes she could drive her mother’s car to classes, but other times she had to find a ride.
When Flood’s mother got sick again, she paused her education for a third time. She had only four credits left.
Flood didn’t return to school for many years. In that time, she lost her son Richard and all of her sisters. Most of her family is gone now, Flood said, but she still has her son, Keith.
She moved in with Keith, her daughter-in-law and her two grandsons in a three-bedroom house in Waterville in 2019. A few years later, she enrolled in Mid-Maine Regional Adult Community Education, following in her grandson Kody’s footsteps.
Kody said it was “a little awkward at first,” going to school with his grandmother. He knew Flood would like to poke her head in on his classes to make sure he was working hard. But the two got into a rhythm, and sometimes Kody would do the same to her, making sure Flood was where she was supposed to be when he picked her up.
Flood loved being back in school — and her teachers and classmates loved her.
When she was a baby, Flood said she was “always the one who was tossed aside.” She said she had to learn how to smile and make people happy.
Now, her smile is what everyone at school says they love most.
At Thursday’s ceremony, Flood’s family watched proudly as she walked across the stage at Waterville Senior High School and received her high school diploma.
Graduates and families cried happy tears as families in the audience said “she did it,” as they watched School Superintendent Peter Halen and Mayor Michael Morris hand diplomas and flowers to their family members.
After the ceremony, classmates and teachers flocked to Flood, who greeted everyone with a smile. One of Flood’s first teachers, Arlene Toulouse, hugged her as Flood introduced Toulouse to her family.
“I just loved being her teacher. She worked so hard,” Toulouse said. “I’m so proud.”
Flood barely missed a day of school in her three years at MMRACE. She learned how to read much better, and how to spell. She found out she’s still good at science, her old favorite subject.
Flood loved laughing and joking around with her teachers and couldn’t wait to have them in the same room with her family at graduation.
Hannah Bard, the school’s director, said Flood has been a wonderful presence in the program.
In recent years, Flood has struggled to get a job. She’s been told she’s too old. Now, equipped with stronger literacy skills, she hopes more doors will be open to her.
She knows her sisters aren’t around to see what she’s done, but she hopes she’s proved to people that she can do anything she puts her mind to — and so can they.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Abigail Pritchard can be reached at apritchard@centralmaine.com.