As more than 170 members of the Indian River High School class of 2007 shuffled into their gym in graduation gowns last Tuesday night and, later, proudly toward the stage to collect symbolic pieces of paper, bulbs flashed and friends and family members pumped congratulatory fists in the air and cheered. It was a moment the students had been awaiting for years and one for which they have certainly prepared.
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Traci and Robbie Gray join their children, Jessie and Elise, at Jessie’s graduation from Indian River High School last week.
And while many spoke of the usual, “laughter and tears,” and their futures using metaphors including those of ships destined for unknown ports, their partners in the 17-year journey, who were also lauded in speeches Tuesday night, sat quietly.
The looks on parents’ faces Tuesday can best be described as somewhere between pride and nausea; boredom and angst. They sat behind their children last week, some cracking smiles at certain points in the night while others peered around their counterparts in front of them to get a better view.
Traci Gray, only one mother among many in the crowd, described herself as “very, very proud.”
Gray’s feelings after the ceremony completed just shy of 9 p.m. likely mirrored those of many other parents scattered across a packed gym Tuesday. But her journey into that gym was scarily unique.
Gray, accompanied by her husband Robbie, who rested a hand on hers throughout most of the 90 minute ceremony, came in a wheelchair and directly from the hospital after having suffered a heart attack four days earlier.
“I fought to get out of the hospital,” said Gray, 40, who lives in Dagsboro with her family. “I’m very excited to be here.”
Her son, Jessie Michael Gray, was the second of the pair’s children to graduate; his sister, Elise, graduated from Sussex Tech in 2005. Jesse, who was in the home the morning of the heart attack, spoke quietly and with humility Tuesday, explaining his plans to go straight into the workforce after graduation and, hopefully, work with a mechanic.
“I’m glad she came,” Jessie said after graduating, adding that was nervous and excited.
“Congratulations to my brother,” Elise added.
Traci Gray, a 25-year smoker who quit last May and a diabetic who has been insulin-dependent since the age of 5, said she did not know she was having a heart attack early on June 1 when she lost all her energy and began sweating profusely. She had planned to begin that morning like most others, by reporting to Indian River High School, where she works in the cafeteria. Instead, Gray’s sister called 911 about 6:30 a.m. and alerted Robbie, a truck driver, who was dropping a delivery in Fruitland, Md.
“I was really upset,” said Robbie, who noted that he and his wife’s 23rd wedding anniversary is only days away, on June 16. “She had the worst kind of heart attack. She shouldn’t be here,” Robbie added Tuesday night. “It’s hard for me to explain. I’m spinning.”
Traci Gray fought heart problems last year, as well.
After spells of abnormal breathing, she was misdiagnosed and treated for asthma before doctors recognized she had heart failure in September. She spent four weeks in the hospital and had triple-bypass open-heart surgery on Oct. 10 but knew she could still be susceptible to a heart attack.
Surgeons at Beebe Medical Center used three stents to open blockages in Traci’s heart Friday night and she remained in the hospital until early last Tuesday evening.
With her vitals stabilized Tuesday, Gray said she talked her way out of Beebe about 5 p.m. and headed straight to Indian River High School, with flocks of other family members, to proudly witness the one-time event she said she could not miss. And while her situation was drastically unfamiliar to most parents in attendance Tuesday night, her sentiment after the ceremony was not.
“I’d have done anything to be here with him,” she said.