Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  Over the years on the first day of school, Mary Joyce introduced herself as Miss Banana Slippers and pretended to slip on a banana peel. The kids laughed and giggled and whatever anxiety they felt about entering a new class was dispelled as they watched an adult be silly.

That feeling of comfort lasted throughout their years at Nederland Elementary School as they found physical educational teacher Mary Joyce to be a source of fun and action and her office to be a sanctuary within the school.

When she stood with the other teachers on the school sidewalk last Thursday, and waved goodbye to the school buses on the last day of school, it was hard to imagine that this was her real last day of school. There will be no returning in August; after 26 years of teaching kids how to be healthy, how to keep their balance, to enjoy sports, Mary is retiring.

She came to Nederland in 1990 to build an earthship. “I wanted to build a house that was kind to the environment and that would take care of me.” All summer, she filled old tires with dirt, stacking them into a berm, creating walls that allowed for alternative energy, warm in winter, cool in summer, with large south facing windows, utilizing a soft grid. She still lives there.

Mary came to the west from the east coast and worked in Boulder as a case manager at the Center for People with Disabilities. She loved the west and worked for a wilderness adventure program, allowing her to backpack all over the west. She lived for awhile in Alma which she says is the highest town in the country and has only 13 frost free days.

Boulder was fast becoming an expensive place to live and she had visited Nederland often enough to know she wanted to live there and hoped to find a job in the town she lived in. She lucked out. Nederland Middle Senior High School teacher Deb Eads was leaving her position as the PASSAGES director to work at Eagle Rock High School in Estes Park, another alternative learning resource.

Mary subbed for a semester and then taught from 92-94 in the Focus transition. In 1995, NES teacher Claudia Kuster took a maternity leave and Mary took over the special education position. She was certified in special education and had a masters degree in adaptive physical education.

When PE teacher Lee Tillotson retired, Mary was happy to get back working with the kids, kindergarten through fifth grade.

“I loved watching them grow up, having them come back each year, and now seeing them when I go to town for coffee.”

She has loved every day of her job, loved the kids and the teachers and administrators she has worked with, including eight different principals. Although it has been a dream job for her, she says that lower enrollment numbers have led to changes in the specialists positions. Every third day she has been required to teach at Crestview Elementary School, a 45-minute drive each way to keep her full-time position.

“I have loved every minute of the past 16 years. I loved being the teacher who could let the kids be loud, run, play, to be out in our beautiful field. This has been a dream job and it is so hard to leave.”

During her NES career, Mary has been at the heart of the annual Track and Field Day, the Circus, the Winter Adventure Days, the Nederland Volleyball and Basketball Associations and taught skating at Nederland’s ice rink as well acting on the board of directors. She was instrumental in the Peak to Peak Soccer program and on the Mountain People’s Co-op board for 15 years.

But the silver lining of Mary’s change is the opportunity to go back east and spend time with her 95-year old mother and be outside, hiking and camping.

Last week, after the last day of school, Mary enjoyed a cup of coffee at Salto’s and every few minutes someone would reach out to her, congratulating her but also expressing how much they would miss her. Former NES teacher Molly Melamed says that Mary taught her children and was and is an amazing person.

Mary will keep her house in Nederland and hopes to return someday. “This is my home. Right now, new doors will open; who knows what will happen?”

Her daughter Ande has moved to New York to establish full time residency to go back to college, studying psychology and social work.

As she talks about leaving she says, “I like to think I had a special relationship with those who had trouble in the classroom offering them a place to de-stress, let them throw a ball around.”

When Mary told her kids she was retiring and asked them how she could retire when she wasn’t tired, one of the students told her, “It means you have a lot of money.”

“It means you are leaving us.”

“It means you are too old to do your job anymore.”

She offered him her whistle and told him he could take over.

On the last day of school, Mary brought out her collection of rocks and shells and laid them out on the floor, inviting the kids to pick out the one they liked and keep it to remember her.

She also told them to always follow her rules which are: Play hard, play fair and have fun.

(Originally published in the May 31, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)