Mahomet graduate receives piece of Berlin Wall as reminder that nothing is permanent

The Berlin Wall fell in Nov. 1989; Carole Catron, a high school senior in California, watched the news reports of the events.

The World Trade Centers and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001; Sarah Windingland, a high school senior in Virginia, watched the new reports as they unfolded.

Much of the United States shut down in mid-March 2020 as COVID-19 began to spread; Ezra Campbell realized that the end of his senior year would not come to be as he envisioned it.

World events often leave a mark on the one who witnessed them while generations who come after study their impact in history books.

It is almost certain that Campbell learned about the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in a history class, but it was important to Catron that he held the piece of history in his hands.

Catron and Windingland, Campbell’s mom, met about eight years when their youngest were toddlers in preschool together. Campbell was on the cusp of his teenage years; as Windingland opened up about her son’s transition from child to teen, she leaned on Catron, who also had children in their 20’s, for advice on what was normal. 

“She had a baby strapped to her, and I had Ollie (Windingland’s youngest) had started to toddle around. We kind of connected over our babies, too. Carol made it super easy. She’s laid back and real,” Windingland said. 

“That was the hardest time, and Carol’s like, here’s the deal; she’s done this before. Every single piece of advice he’s given me has been right when it comes to raising boys.”

As happens with most mothers who have children of similar age, Catron and Windingland began to hang out. The younger children played together, and the mothers looked to each other for help, picking up each other’s kids from school now and again.

Except during the winter months, Catron said. The California native hunkers down when the temperature falls below 20-degrees in Illinois. Windingland understands, letting her have her space.

“It’s kind of like having a younger sister,” Catron said. “I don’t have a sister, but she’s like a family member.”

That sisterly bond grew in early April 2019 when Catron called Windingland to tell her that her husband was in the hospital. 

Windingland knew that whether Catron was her best friend or just an acquaintance, she needed to help. In the days that followed, Catron’s children spent the after school hours at the Windingland residence.

The bond that the two women had formed prior to Eric being hospitalized made room for Catron to trust Windingland with her children. Windingland became a “third parent” to the children, Catron said.

“They’re not used to sleeping anywhere and it was a very difficult time,” Catron said. “But I knew my kids were safe and well cared for, mentally and physically.”

“I love her kids,” Windingland said. “They do have a hard time falling asleep, so I put them in my bed, and they fell asleep holding each other. It was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Eric Catron passed away on April 15, 2019. 

Catron lost her mother when she was four-years old. 

“I’ve had a lot of difficult times in my life,” Catron said. “And unfortunately my children have to go through this, too. 

“I grieved that. That has helped me be able to connect with my children during their time for their father.”

Catron took the same viewpoint when she was picking out a graduation gift for Campbell.

Being the only parent for her children, Catron is cognizant of how movement outside of the home will expose her to COVID-19. She is limiting herself, only going to the grocery store every 10 days.

Knowing that graduation was around the corner, Catron knew that she would not be able to go out and purchase a gift for Campbell, but she also knew that trinkets aren’t his style.

Campbell and Catron would not say they are close; he is like every other teenage boy who isn’t particularly interested in befriending his mom’s friend. But, an avid “treasure hunter” Catron often finds “fantastically weird” t-shirts as gifts for Campbell.

“He’s not really superficial,” Catron said.

Knowing that teens enjoy money, Catron made sure she included some in his gift. She told him to use it however he pleases. 

But, as she began to think about what the world looked like when she graduated from high school, she realized that the two had something in common: the world was changing.

“It’s just devastating when children go to school and have to deal with things that I never had to go through. And now, graduation after they’ve worked so hard.”

“I’m 32 years past high school graduation, and to me, my high school wasn’t really a big thing; I didn’t really care,” Catron said. “But I remember the Berlin Wall came down. And also it was a great stock market crash during my senior year of high school.

“I remember seeing stories about women getting shot or people trying to run for their lives and how desperate it was.

“I remember seeing, we turned on the news at schools when it came down, and watch the people taking hammers and cars and hands to pull this wall down.”

While still in California, she purchased a piece of the wall.

She gave it to Campbell as a graduation gift and added a little perspective.

She wrote, “I remember people cheering as they destroyed something unthinkably permanent. May it symbolize bad things are never permanent,” to Campbell.

Of course, that does not mean that bad things are short-lived.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 as a way to stop an exodus from the eastern, communist part of divided Germany to the west. It stood for 10,316 days.

“I wanted to give him that kind of feeling like maybe everything that’s going on in the world, we really can’t tear down a virus, but maybe his generation will come together and respect science, knowledge, where somehow we’ve gotten off course,” Catron said. “And that piece of brick wall could be his tumbling down of the walls we’ve created for them in this society.”

Catron remembers that even coming out of the Cold War in the late 1980’s, the world was not as divided as it is in 2020.

“We all had a common goal,” she said. “We may have just had different ways of getting to that common goal.”

The gift did not stop there, though. Catron’s grandfather always carried an Indian head nickel for good luck. So, figuring the 2020 graduate could use some, she included an Indian head nickel that she’d picked up somewhere.

She said that her grandfather believed that the coin brought good luck. She could remember how smooth it had become from his finger rubbing over it. 

“You could barely see the Indian Head or the Buffalo,” she said.

Although graduation did not happen as she’d envisioned it, Windingland believes that the kids who are witnessing how the world will change from this historic event are adaptable.

Afterall, they came into this world just after 9-11. They have lived through the Great Recession and a plague of school shootings. 

Catron has seen resilience through her own children. The routine of school helped her daughter work through the grieving process of losing her father. A year later, without school some of those feeling are resurfacing.

But, although the kids are missing their routine, Catron said that they understand the weight and consequence of COVID-19.

“Routine helps grief, but we, as a nation are grieving our collective pause of life, with no routine. We’re stuck in it. But we will get through it. Science just needs to catch up.”

Catron hopes that the gift, although it may not be immediately understood or appreciated, will leave an impression of patience on Campbell as he embarks on the next stage of his life.

“What Carole wrote in her card, the symbolism that she described struck me really hard,” Windingland said. “It’s kind of a perfect example of what’s going on right now.

“I don’t know if he appreciates it as much as I do; I probably know more about that than he does. But he thought it was really cool.”

She said that the piece of the Berlin Wall wasn’t something she really wanted to get rid of, it wasn’t just an object laying around the house. It has carried it with her from California to Florida to Illinois. 

But she also knows that gifts given in sacrifice also have great significance.

“It’s something that I cherished, and I hope that one day he will understand that.”