When Vicki Luckey came to Maple Mount on Dec. 15, 2015, to watch her 8-year-old son Ryan sing, it was like a trip home to a place she’s never lived.
Luckey teaches fifth grade at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School in Hopkinsville, Ky., where Ryan and her 10-year-old son are students. She also has twin 23-year-old daughters, who both plan to become teachers.
Vicki Luckey, left, and her 8-year-old son Ryan, pose with Jane Irwin following lunch in the Motherhouse dining room on Dec. 15
For years, Luckey has been bringing her students on field trips to Maple Mount, so coming as a parent on Dec. 15 just seemed normal.
“It’s just so special. The kids love coming here,” Luckey said. “It’s peaceful. They love the sisters, they always ask a lot of questions about the sisters when we get back. We don’t have sisters in our school. We tell them they used to be teachers.”
Luckey has lived in Hopkinsville since she was 10 and attended Sts. Peter and Paul. Her fifth-grade teacher was Sarah Kranz, a graduate of Mount Saint Joseph Academy who is now the principal of the Hopkinsville school.
“I wanted to be a teacher since I was 3 years old,” Luckey said. “I wanted to teach in the Catholic schools.”
She got her wish, teaching three years at Sts. Peter and Paul before taking several years off when she had her two boys. She has been back seven years.
“I don’t know how I started coming here, I’ve been coming for so long,” she said. “Other teachers brought their students on field trips here, so I did the same.”
Jane Irwin, who was the first-grade teacher at the school, started writing to Sister Jane Miriam Hancock seven years ago, at the urging of Sarah Kranz. Sister Jane Miriam corresponded with the children and Irwin started bringing her students to Maple Mount to sing for the sisters at Christmas and in the spring.
Now Irwin is teaching fourth grade, so she brought third and fourth grade students to sing on Dec. 15, which included Ryan Luckey.
Though Vicki Luckey loves coming to the Mount with her students, she doesn’t plan on bringing her fifth-graders to the Mount in 2016.
“My class has been here twice with Ms. Irwin,” she said.