By Sentinel Staff
Christine Littlefield is finding just how much she was appreciated as a Mt. Edgecumbe High School dorm aide for 40 years.
Scores of the students she took care of are sending her birthday and Christmas cards – all in response to a Facebook posting Teisha Simmons sent in late November saying:
“Christine Littlefield is going to be turning 91 on December 5. She worked with students at Edgecumbe for four decades. I was thinking it would be really neat to get a bunch of her previous students that she worked with to send her either a birthday card or a Christmas card. Her daughter (KathyHope Erickson) shared her address with me ... if anyone would like it please let me know, and please share this with other Edgecumbe students who were there between about 1952 and 2000. ...”
The response was instant. As of this past weekend, 192 responses, 176 comments and 323 shares had been recorded on Simmons’ Facebook page, and Christine has received 70 some cards in the mail so far from her former charges.
Simmons, who’s with the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, had posted the note after visiting Sitka with her grandmother, Marie (Huntington) Simmons, 82. The two had come to see Marie’s daughter, Mary Huntington, who had been named superintendent of Mt. Edgecumbe High in June.
That gave Marie, who had been one of Christine’s first students, a chance to visit with her.
Christine was a student at Wrangell Institute in 1947 when she was transferred to the new BIA high school on Japonski Island. After graduating from Mt.
Edgecumbe High School in 1948 she went to work at the Mt. Edgecumbe hospital with Dr. Phil Moore.
“Then my classmate Dodo (Dorothy McCafferty) said ‘come to work with me in the dorm – we’ll have fun!’” Christine said.
Over the next 40 years she took care of hundreds of students, among them her own children: Andrew Hope, Gerry Hope, Kathy Hope and Greg Littlefield.
The comments posted on Simmons’ Facebook page say she “was the sweetest,” awesome, lovely, kind, so kind, wonderful, and caring, and thank her for “taking care of us. God bless you.”
One wrote: “I just loved Mrs. Littlefield! She knew all four of my kids. May she enjoy many more healthy birthdays.”
Another wrote “She was our matron in 1950, my first year at Mt. E. & she always had a smile.”
Another: “My Mom said she was her best dorm aide. Class of 1961.”
“She was the kindest woman, 1960-1964. ... Give her much love, hugs n God’s blessings for her loving kindness n unconditional love she had for all!”
Tina Sam wrote: “Hi girl, where are you these days? I still could see you smiling, totally made my day! I love you, think of you n others now n then n wonder how’s everyone!”
Christine returns the love and admiration being sent her way.
“Don’t know whether it was the school atmosphere or the fact they were Alaskans, but they were the best kids ever, so polite and giving,” she said. “And I have to give their parents credit.”
For most of her time at the dorm she worked the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, and she loved it. “When I had the day shift I was so bored!” she said.
“We had so much fun.”
For example, in those days many students stayed at school over Christmas, and a Christmas Eve party would be held in the dorm living room, complete with presents.
“Just small things, but it was fun,” she said.
She said graduation days were emotional, saying goodbye to her young charges. “It was a time for congratulations but also a time to cry.”
She smiled when she was told how many of the former students commenting on Facebook called her sweet and kind.
“I wasn’t sweet all the time – ‘Clean those toilets!’”
As a residential school student herself, she knew what it was like to be a long way from home, and tried to make sure the girls were cared for, she said.
“Kids are the most blessed thing in this world,” she said. “I’m so lucky.”
She said the cards that keep coming in mean a lot to her.
“I’ve wondered over the years where they were, how they were,” she said. “Now I’m finding out ....”
Christine Littlefield, 91, today holds some of the many letters written recently to thank her for her 40 years as a dorm aide at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, and to wish her a happy birthday and merry Christmas. (Sentinel Photo)
