Mrs. Mostyn’s Memory Project

“I think I haven’t really stopped teaching since I left here, but I’ve found God in a lot of different places,” said Mrs. Marge Mostyn when we met with her on a warm fall day near the grotto at Providence Catholic. (Read more below and watch the video – please pardon the sound, but for the safety of Marge and Shannon, we hosted the interview outdoors).

Through her career, Mrs. Mostyn has been a teacher at Providence Catholic, Lewis University, and more. Last year, an idea sparked when she learned of the death of one of her former students – the mother to a then-senior at Providence Catholic.

“I wanted to find her mother’s index card and give it to her, because sometimes something small like that can be so important.”
Though she wasn’t able to find that card after enlisting her grandson’s help, she did find that the search wasn’t a complete loss. Many, many hours of organization later, she had the start of the project.

The Mrs. Mostyn Memory Project.

“So I had organized all these cards and I thought you know, I really would like if anybody wanted their card to see what they wrote their freshman year of high school wouldn’t it be great if I could get it to them?” she said.

The cards were born from an idea Fr. Kaffer gave her as a young teacher: take an index card and put the student’s name on it, and place it on their desk. She also had students write other things, like their grade schools, favorite class, favorite television show, and more.

Nearly 2,500 cards and a few decades later, she still has a treasure trove of 16 years of Providence Catholic student memories.

In addition to the cards, she has papers from the class of 1998 on where they’d be in the year 2015. She still has tessellations of students who have died. “They are beautiful, and I want to get them to their parents or somebody who would want them,” she adds.

So with the help of Shannon Withers, Director of Alumni Relations and Special Events, Mrs. Mostyn is beginning her journey to return these treasures to their homes.
“I’m hoping students will contact me. The thing that I’ve always wanted for my students is that they’d see they aren’t what they were in high school – they become so much more!”

While Mrs. Mostyn has lots of cards, papers, and photos, we cannot guarantee she has something from each student. If you would like to reach out to Mrs. Mostyn and see if she still has something from your days at Providence Catholic, email her at mmostyn@providencecatholic.org.

And, if you remember, Mrs. Mostyn was the originator of the “Dear God, Love, Me” prayer that we still use daily at Providence Catholic. She will be sharing her Dear God prayers with us in the future, so join us on social media to read and hear them!

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