Former South Buffalo classmates reunite monthly with teacher

Most students might bet they’d lose touch with their kindergarten classmates and their teacher. But Sister Maralynn Sciarrino’s class of 1953 managed to defy the odds.

A large group of Buffalo Holy Family School alumni, all about 77 years old, gather on the first Tuesday of every month at the Wayside Family Restaurant in South Buffalo. And for the past five or six years, they’ve been joined by Sciarrino, who turned 90 this year.

Last Tuesday, the group of 17 gathered around three tables and sat down to pass around black-and-white photos and a program from their kindergarten graduation 71 years ago while swapping stories about their school years.

The old-timers were at home in the restaurant’s classic decor, where floral-patterned walls hung above two-tone wainscoting and muted yellow hues brightened the place. Sciarrino, of course, was at the helm. – “the queen,” as Mike DeLellis affectionately called her.

Sciarrino was a teacher for more than 70 years. She helped children with speech disorders while running the Mercy Speech Center for 49 years until it closed when she retired in 2017. Before that, she began teaching kindergarten at Holy Family School almost immediately after joining the Sisters of Mercy at age 18. All of her students at the dinner described her as a kind and gentle teacher.

“She’s only 13 years older than us, so she was as nice then as she is now,” Maureen Barlow said.

The classmates’ reunion was an effort initially led by Lina D’Amore and the late Pat Brophy, who organized a reunion in 2011 to mark the 50th anniversary of the group’s eighth-grade graduation from Holy Family in 1961.

About 55 to 60 people attended the event, and some of the group continued to meet at bars on a more regular basis, Mike DeLellis said. Eventually, the group decided they were “too old” for the bar scene, John Silvestri said, and Dennis Spinelli, the owner of Wayside who is also a member of the class, suggested they go to his restaurant, where they have been meeting ever since.

“Everybody came from about five blocks south and five blocks north of the church,” Silvestri said. “So we grew up in the neighborhood, you know. We played together, played ball together, did all these things together. Then a lot of years went by and all of a sudden we all got together.”

These meetings give them a chance to discuss all sorts of things: their old neighborhood, their daily lives, their illnesses, their families, etc. DeLellis said gossip also makes its way from time to time.

“She’ll start talking about the nuns right away. We’ll say, ‘Should we say that in front of the nun?’ and she’ll say, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll talk about it, I never liked that one anyway,'” DeLellis said with a laugh. The nun smiled, too.

The gatherings brought everyone closer together, Silvestri and DeLellis said. Spinelli said they were like a big family, and Sciarrino was a vital source of comfort and prayer when the group members and their families went through difficult times, Jeanne Kreavy said. Indeed, quite a few group members have passed away since the first gathering.

Still, even though it happened late in life, the chance to reconnect with someone was rewarding. Sciarrino said it was a satisfying milestone, and of course, the opportunity to stay in touch with your kindergarten teacher at age 70 isn’t common, D’Amore said.

Looking back on her teaching career and all of her students, both in and out of that room with her, one word came to Sciarrino’s mind.

“I think the secret to it all was just love,” she said. “I loved them so much, and they’re the same people I loved so much. I never had any discipline problems or anything like that because they were all there for me, so it’s wonderful to have them back.”