Dear Parents and Students,

At the end of this school year, I will have completed my forty-fifth year of teaching and administration in Catholic schools and my thirty-fifth year at Our Lady of Fatima School.  These years of working with children and their parents have been ones filled with indescribable joy, welcomed challenges, and daily spiritual growth.  As I have often said when someone asks me about my long teaching career, "I have never had one dull or uninteresting day!"  I have, however, come to a place in my life where I realize that it is time to step into a new way of being.  My diocesan suggested retirement date has come and gone many times.  I have just not felt ready until now.  Since suffering a back injury last April, I have experienced physical limitations that require a different pace of life and I have an older brother suffering from brain cancer with whom I want to spend more time.  I believe that life's uncontrollable circumstances are often God's way of calling us to something new.

What will I miss the most?  The children!  Parents have generously entrusted their most treasured little ones with me (I am referring to the big 6^th through 8^th grades, too!).  What they have given me these past forty-five years is something that no money can buy or success or a high position can bring.  They have given me unconditional love and taught me to see God in this way.  As I have shared with them the gospel stories, prayed with them when the troubled world seems scary and out of control, guided them when they have troubles they cannot solve alone, and laughed with them when that is the only thing that brings comfort, I have felt God's presence in the most profound way.  Before I fall asleep at night, they are the first to be mentioned in my litany of thanks for the blessings of the day.

I leave my Catholic school teaching career with confidence that those who come after me will continue to make our Catholic school a place where your children will be nurtured in their Catholic faith and challenged academically to develop the gifts and strengths they have been given by God.  The staff and teachers are men and women of strong faith and deeply held convictions that teaching in a Catholic school is more than a job-it is the ministry Jesus is calling them to do.

I will continue to make Our Lady of Fatima Church my parish and plan to be active in parish ministry.

I ask you to pray for me as I step into this new and exciting phase of my life.  I will never forget you or your children and will always pray for you.

Lovingly,

Miss Simmons

Directions from San Clemente:

Take I-5 South to Oceanside Harbor Drive/Camp Pendleton exit.

Turn left at light, and proceed to Main Gate of base.

Stay in right lane that is marked "Visitors".

Once you are authorized to enter, turn right at Wire Mountain Road, which is the first street, inside the checkpoint.

From Wire Mountain Road go to San Jacinto Road (first stop sign).

Turn left onto San Jacinto Road, proceed to the South Mesa Staff Club that is located at the end of the road.

More information in your yellow envelope and attached today!