When Sun City resident Joyce Zemba taught at St. Philomena’s grade school in Chicago in the late 1960s, it seemed unlikely that any of her students would be able to stand out.
“I taught a class of 49 sixth graders and they were a handful,” said Zemba, who was a nun and educator forfourth, fifth, and sixth graders.
Despite this, sixth grader Guido Lavorata managed to stay on Zemba’s radar.
Joyce Zemba and Guido Lavorata. (Photo provided)
“He was a real cute little kid. I used to call him the Italian charmer,” Zemba said, adding that she could never seem to give him enough attention.“When the kids were dismissed after school, he would come back to my room, wave goodbye to me, walk a little ways down the hall, and then he’d come back and he’d wave goodbye to me again. Then he could be on his way.”
At the time, Lavorata was twelve years old and Zemba was twenty-seven.
Since she taught Lavorata’s class in 1968, Zembaeventually married another teacher from the school (her husband, Lester), thus leaving the sisterhood.A few years ago, and more than forty years later, Zemba searched for Lavorata on social media.
“When I found him on Facebook, I said to my husband, ‘that can’t be Guido, look how old he is.’ And my husband said, ‘do you realize how old you are?’” Zemba joked.
Lavorata and Zemba have been communicating ever since. Lavorata is now a teacher himself (he teaches music, something Zemba could have predicted since he asked to play his accordion in class), as well as a father and a grandfather. When he and his wife, Donna, planned to visit relatives in Crystal Lake this October, Lavorata and Zemba had the perfect opportunity for a reunion.
“[Lavorata] told me he was so nervous,” said Zemba. “He said he had a crush on me when I was his teacher. So I said, ‘you know, Guido, when I answer the door you’re not going to see a cute little nun, you’re going to see an old lady.’ When I opened the door, he hugged me and kissed me, and he said ‘I can still see you in you,’” she said.
During their reunion, Zemba said that she and Lavorata and his wife certainly clicked.
“There wasn’t any silence between the three of us. We just talked and talked,” she said.
The friendship between their families won’t end here. Zemba and her husband plan to visit Lavorata’s family in Arizona this spring. According to Zemba, the best part was that nothing had changed.
“What’s funny is, when he said goodbye to me this time, he waved at me and walked past the tree in my yard,” she said. “Then he came back and walked past the tree to wave at me again.”
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