By Lorraine Duffy Merkl

What if you threw a payback party and nobody came?

Recently, much mention has been made of Lady Gaga’s return to her alma mater, Convent of the Sacred Heart, where she apparently felt dissed when she was enrolled. To settle the score, she made a spectacle of herself by upstaging her sister’s graduation.

Sacred Heart is probably wishing Stefani Gabriella Germanotta had gone to Spence.

This scenario brought to mind the story of when Janis Joplin, as Rolling Stone cover girl and rock diva, returned to her Texas hometown for her 10-year high school reunion. According to the article “Janis’ Texas Hurt” on pophistorydig.com, she was also going back, in part, to make a statement about her success and specifically to flaunt it before those who had treated her badly as a teenager.

“Dressed in the popular San Francisco hippie fashion of the day with feathers and beads and her trademark purple-tinted glasses, Joplin answered questions at a press conference, during which some of her more painful high school days came up again. All in all, it wasn’t a pleasant visit for Joplin. Generally, this visit home to Port Arthur for the reunion did not achieve what she had hoped, and once again she left town feeling rejected and unloved.”

This event was duplicated in the movie The Rose, in which Bette Midler plays a Joplin-esque character. She takes the stage at a local bar triumphantly, only to be brought down by hecklers who hurl the same insults from back in the day. It’s heart wrenching to watch her shake her head and mouth, “No,” as her reprisal fantasy, where they beg forgiveness and say they wish they’d been nicer to her, shatters.

In the case of Lady Gaga, my guess is that the only thing anyone associated with the school wishes is that their alum, formerly known as Stefani Gabriella Germanotta, had gone to Spence.

The retribution vibe also comes off New York’s Real Housewives. It’s like they’re hoping their questionable notoriety will get back at parents, ex-husbands, former employers, colleagues or friends. “Look, I’m on TV with a book, record, jewelry line. Love me now? Bet you wish you’d kept me around.” I bet no, basing this on personal experiences.

One in particular took place in the late ’80s. I ran into a former classmate who told me that a girl we knew growing up had become a hotshot music industry PR exec. It had been a decade since I’d heard the name of this person, who I remembered as being rather silly and immature, but my reaction was Good for her. She had clearly gotten her act together, risen above her Bronx roots and carved out a nice career for herself. And then, well, that’s about it.

Never once did it cross my mind that, “If only I had not let her off-the-wall behavior get on my nerves and drive me as far from her as possible, today I, as her guest, could be dancing on tables in nightclubs with sinewy lead singers.” Quite frankly, no hot spot or Grammy-winner access would be worth the draining experience I would have had to endure being her friend throughout high school.

Instead of finding peace in success and pride in the fact that the non-supporters did not keep them from their dreams—the best revenge being simply living well —some people need to rub it in the faces of those who didn’t care back then, and probably don’t care now. What a waste of time and it just shows how much you—Gaga & Co.—still care about them. 

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Lorraine Duffy Merkl’s debut novel, Fat Chick, from The Vineyard Press, is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com

As school nurse, Trano doesn’t just put ice on pulled muscles and band-aids on scraped knees. Her charges’ physical and emotional needs vary greatly: one might have an asthma attack, while another suffers from allergies. One could be upset over a grandparents’ death, while another complains of boy trouble.

Tending to a population that ranges in age from 3-year-olds to 12th graders means dealing with the full scope of developmental stages, explained Joseph J. Ciancaglini, head of school.

“It’s a challenge for a nurse to make sure all the kids are well cared for. Some you bandage up and send back to the classroom. With others you have to know if she’s really ill or is it a test coming up or a fight with a friend,” he said. “Gail is zeroing in very quickly on what the real problem is.”

Photo by Andrew Schwartz

The key to working with children and teenagers, Trano believes, is showing them that they can trust and confide in her. To achieve that, she often draws from her training: after graduating from the Columbia School of Nursing, she spent years working in adolescent psychiatry before building an entire school nursing program from scratch at Regis High School.

The transition from Regis, an all-boys school, to Sacred Heart proved less jarring than she anticipated.

“They’re all kids and they all need the same thing: somebody to listen to them,” Trano said.

She said the girls know that her door is always open and that once inside, they can count on more than expertly administered First Aid. They come to her for beauty supplies like hair gel and nail polish remover (school policy prohibits wearing nail polish in lower grades). They come to chat with her about the latest Harry Potter movie or Twilight novel (she makes a point of keeping up to date on pop culture).

It is this atmosphere of comfort and support, Trano thinks, that allows them to open up to her.

“I listen and I observe. I see bullying and teasing, I see reactions to test grades, I see the coping skills,” she said. “I see the isolated child, the sad child whose parents just divorced, the child who is losing weight, the child who is gaining too much.”

Her dedication to the students is so great, the mother of two grown sons spends most of her spare time researching the field and mentoring others. A member of city, state and national school nurses associations, Trano contributes extensively to online forums.

JoAnn Kubat, the current nurse at Regis High School, said Trano’s expertise is sought by colleagues all over the country.

“There isn’t a question out there on the listserv that doesn’t prompt somebody to say, ‘Let’s ask Gail,’” Kubat said. “Gail knows everything, and she loves to pass on what she knows.”

For Trano, the guiding and training of other nurses is an important contribution to her profession, one that enables her to affect countless kids outside of Sacred Heart’s vaulted hallways: “To be someone who makes a difference in the life of a child is a privilege and a joy.”
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Gail Trano
School Nurse, Convent of the Sacred Heart