The Call Abbie Creed   © Copyright 2025 by Abbie Creed

Photo courtesy of the author.

I would need to attend training classes at St. Agnes along with Clara Jacob who had five children. I had six children and five of them were boys, the same that Clara had. That must have been a criterion for taking on this task. We began the classes which were taught by Sr. Denise. She was a wonderful person and particularly good teacher. She taught us each lesson as if we were the children in her class. Learning “hands on” made it extremely easy to meet with the group of twenty-six first graders and repeat what I had learned from her. However, that was just the beginning. Clara and I continued teaching CCD classes for seven years.

Two years after I started teaching, I received another call but this time it was from the pastor Fr. Meder. I figured somebody must be in trouble at school since by this time all my children were in school. My youngest one, was in second grade. Father said that they had a second-grade teacher who needed to take a leave of absence and that I was needed to take her place. This was the second week of March 1970. When I told him that I was not certified to teach, he insisted that I was exactly what they needed. It seemed that this class was totally out of control and since I had five boys, he knew that I would be perfect for the job.

Dan and I talked about it and since I had been thinking about working outside the home to help with the high school tuitions, we decided that would be a good opportunity since I would be home close to the time that the children got home. I called father back and told him that I would give it a try.

The first day was horrible! The principal had told me about this class and how they walked across desk seats, broke crayons, and put them on the hot radiators, took items from each other’s lunch bags and didn’t know how to line up for restroom breaks or to go to lunch. I had my work cut out for me.

My first chore was to explain that I would now be their teacher and their friend but that there were a few things that we needed to work on. After having failed four times to line up and return to their seats without walking on - the seats, they finally got it right. It took about a week before we were able to line up to go to the rest room or make it to lunch on time. The principal was pleased with the progress so far. However, the children were only on page 26 of their phonics books and since I was not certified to teach, I could not teach any of the major subjects. I took the phonics books home, and my children helped me tear out pages and place them in stacks in numerical order, so I could use them for seat work.

We had three classrooms of second graders, my son was not in my homeroom, but I did teach him my “could do” subjects: Religion, Music, Art, Science and Spelling. This was First Communion year, so I was busy preparing them for that too. With a lot of help from the other two teachers, I managed to get that class caught up with the other two classes by the end of the year. That was quite a challenge, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

There was an emergency teacher shortage the next year, so Clara and I were asked to split a 4^th grade homeroom. I took the morning shift from 7:30 – 12:00 and she came in at 11:30 and took over until the end of the day. She brought her youngest son to school with her, and I took him to his Montessori School for kindergarten’s afternoon session. We were quite a team!

That was a special year! We were housed in a small room with 38 desks plus a teacher’s desk along with a big pole that divided the room. We made that pole something different every month. We began our first Geography lesson on a Pacific Island. We made that ugly pole a beautiful palm tree with a coconut growing on it and a monkey hanging from one of the branches. A little burlap and green construction paper along with a bit of ingenuity did wonders for that pole.

Fr. Meder, our pastor, had another job for Clara and me. He was not happy with the Religion books being used from Silver Burdett because they were based more on social teaching rather than being Scripture based. He asked us to do a study of the various tests available through the Archdiocese. Since Vatican 11, all the publishers revised their texts, and they were readily available. We got copies of each text for the 8 grades of school from the various publishers and after many hours of research, we found that Sadlier Publishing had scripturally based catechesis and taught basic Catholic traditions. Fr. Meder was pleased with our findings and the next year, we met with the publisher’s representative, Jim Devlin, who was himself the young father of a large Catholic Family. We clicked with him right away. He gave St. Raphael and us so much support during those early years along with lots of “freebies.” I still send and receive a Christmas Card from Jim and his wife “Maggie” even today. He has 9 children and the last time I talked with him; he was still working at Sadlier.

The next year Clara was moved to 5^th grade, and I stayed in the 4^th grade. I loved teaching that age children since they were leaving the baby grades behind and moving into the middle school age. It also was the year for teaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This year I had my son in my homeroom class. The bad part about that was that I rarely selected him to do anything for fear that I would be accused of playing favorites. I left choosing him for lead parts to the other two homeroom teachers.

Again, I could not teach major subjects, but I did get to teach Geography along with Religion, Music, Art and Spelling. This was a wonderful class of students but for some reason there were many of them who were still young for this grade and many who were in special reading classes. This was the first year for a regular Music teacher who taught a half hour class once a week. I had to continue what she had taught for the rest of the week. I loved it!

At the end of that year, I had asked the Music teacher to help me put together a play using music and Geography. We called it Around the World With the 4^th Grade. Since 4^th grade geography also included Geography of Kentucky, we ended with a medley of songs by Stephen Foster. We had music from the Pacific Islands, France, Spain, and Germany. The boys even participated in a German Dance. We gathered some costumes from home. I used several of my daughter’s formals for the Southern Belles. Combining music and Geography gave me more time to practice and with support from my team teachers, the performance went off without a hitch.

At the end of the third year, the teacher shortage was over, and Fr. Meder asked Clara and me if we would stay on and teach Religion in the school and coordinate the Sacrament Program for the school and parish.

That was just the beginning. We ended up going to school two nights a week for seven years and graduating with a master’s equivalency in Catechetics. Clara and I were quite a team teaching together and coordinating the School/Parish program for 18 years. We were even invited to be co-writers of a Sunday School Program called “You Are Invited.” Sr. Betty Blandford headed up the project and we each along with several other coordinators, wrote 12 lessons each. I used several of these lessons in my classes at St. Raphael. I have them in my basement archives. I went with Sr. Betty to Nassau in the Bahamas to do a presentation on the program to the diocese there. That was interesting because Dan, Sr. Betty and I had a ball!

Clara retired from teaching to help her husband in his pharmacy. It was a great loss to the program since we were able to do many things, such as Seder meals for the 6^th graders, Christmas musicals for the primary grades, and special events for the whole school. With a huge bundle of teacher support I was able to continue the Christmas musicals and special whole school events, such as Penny Wars, and the Global Awareness Program. With the help of Betty Lawless, another “forever” friend we took over Student Leadership and outreach programs. Betty Lawless, Clara Jacob and I were known as the ABCs of Religious Education because before Clara left we had taught all the Religion in the entire school. We had so much fun!

During the Student Leadership years, our 8^th graders challenged the principal, to spend a day sitting up in the big tree in the school yard. He threw candy down to the little ones when they came out for recess. Another year, they challenged Mr. D and assistant principal, to spend the day on the roof of the school. Both events were very lucrative fund raisers. But there were many more, such as the principal and upper grade teacher getting slimmed if the goal was reached. The 8^th graders raised money for outreach by having bake sales and charging .25 to attend basketball and volleyball games pitting the teachers against the 8^th grade teams. Of course, the whole school attended. When Betty and I were getting older and afraid to play ball we wore school uniforms and cheered the teachers on, pom-poms and all!

Student Leadership also included a Worship Planning Team. They planned the All-School Liturgies and any other special Mass occasions such as Holy Days, Marian celebrations and graduations etc. This was wonderful as it gave the graduating 8^th graders an opportunity to join the adult teams of parish ministers after graduation. They had been trained all year and had experienced the various ministries.

Betty and I attended the NCEA conventions along with the classroom teachers. One year, our principal, Mr. Dezarn signed me up to do one of the Teacher sessions on Global Awareness. I reminded him that I was the Religion Coordinator and in return he reminded me that I had been responsible for Global Awareness programs for the school. He even sent them a picture of me to put in their booklet. This was a national convention, and I was a bit uptight about the whole thing.

One of my sons helped me put a power-point presentation together, using pictures that I had taken of our Global Awareness celebration. A parent who was very talented and who became one of my chief supporters, had made a flag for each classroom that hung outside their doors, 26 in all. They were beautiful. We used them every year for our celebrations and processions.

The presentation was well received at the convention. With Betty as a teammate and sidekick, we represented St. Raphael, and the presentation was impressive. The evaluations must have been good because shortly after that I received a letter from the NCEA board asking me to write a 500-word article, with pictures, for the Momentum Magazine that they published. I wrote the article and was immensely proud of it since the editors didn’t change anything except the location of the pictures. Mr. DeZarn told me that was rare. I really enjoyed the experience of writing but was quickly deflated when they mis-spelled my name in the publication. I was Abbie Creel, Coordinator of Religious Education at St. Raphael School in Louisville, Ky. That was OK because I knew who wrote it. I received a check for $75 for writing that.

During my 32^nd year on the staff I had a young mother, Carolyn Marcum, ask me if she could work with me so she could learn the workings of coordinating the school and parish programs. Carolyn absorbed it like a sponge and since Betty was now mostly working in the school office, Carolyn fit right into the office that Betty and I had shared.

Carolyn worked without pay for two years. Early on in her third year with me, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and required surgery and treatments with chemo. I took a leave of absence and had planned to return on a part time basis. The peace of mind that I went into surgery with, and the comfort felt, even with all that was facing me, is beyond belief. I knew that Carolyn was very capable and would pick right up where I left off. She did beautifully and finished out that year with flying colors.

I decided to fade out of the picture since Carolyn had a daughter entering high school and needed the money and I was well past retirement age. I did just that. I retired! Almost! Carolyn was happy to let me help her, but I quickly reminded her that she was the boss, and I was now in her old position, that of a volunteer. That was good because it gave me more time at home with my disabled husband, Dan, and that too, was good. Carolyn remained in that job for quite a few years until she applied to teach Religion at a Catholic high school. I reluctantly but happily wrote a letter of recommendation and Carolyn moved on to a position that she still has today.

Not being able to totally separate myself from the children, I still helped as sacristan for the Masses and did costumes for the Passion Play. I think a part of me would still like to be in the classroom and doing parent sacrament workshops. There is still so much I would like to share with parents about the importance of family involvement and attending weekly services. Passing on the faith is important to me. I have been so richly blessed in my own life being raised in a Catholic home and with marrying a man whose family were practicing Catholics too. Dan and I lived out our faith at home and were both active in our parish. Our children saw how important our faith and our Catholic traditions were to us.

I always thought that if parents showed their children the importance of them practicing their faith and seeing how much it meant to them and passing on their traditions, that they would continue passing it on to their children. But I have learned that outside influences play a large role in influencing them otherwise, even though their parents and grandparents practiced what they preached. Not all my children caught the faith that they were taught and lived. Living in this day and time has taken its toll on this idea and the Catholic Church. I believe all my children are gifted with our faith. They are all kind, honest, caring, loving, giving, compassionate adults at home and in their businesses. Today I am at peace with their choices, some have accepted the gift and responded, and are active, others have not. Sometimes I still cannot help but wonder why? Maybe they too, are waiting for “The Call.”

Note. After Dan died in 2006, I began coordinating the funerals for St. Raphael until Covid hit and ended that. I had been arranging a funeral for Joe Hampton’s mother with him and his sister in August of 2017. Joe had been in that class. I went to the funeral home for a visitation and when he spotted me, he called together some of his classmates who were visiting and asked them if they remembered me and how I had whipped them into shape in short order. It was great seeing them all grown up. There were lots of hugs and we all had a few good laughs remembering some of their shenanigans that brought back fond memories of my days at St. R.