Carole Grejda ends her career as secretary at the Harry S Truman Elementary School Friday after 20 years in the front office of the school – a position that brought her into contact with virtually every student and parent connected with the school for the past two decades.

Grejda, however, is not the kind of person counting the days until she can begin a more leisurely pace of life.

Indeed, she says she is looking forward to the time when she can come back into the school as a volunteer.

"I'm not really saying goodbye to Truman School. There's always something to be done around here," Grejda said, and she intends to be there to help. To Grejda, it's just a way of staying connected to people "who have been like family to me."

Grejda recalls a health crisis she had 10 years ago when she had to take two months of medical leave for a bone marrow transplant to combat a form of blood cancer which left her with no blood platelets.

"Staff and teachers from all the schools, and the district administrators, were like a family to me when I needed them. They cared for my children, brought meals to feed us and offered unbelievable support in so many ways," Grejda recalls.

Grejda's doctors at the time expressed doubt as to whether she would recover enough to go back to work. Grejda was determined to prove them wrong.

"It was the people who supported me that really got me back here," she said. She has been cancer free since 2003.

Grejda said the past 20 years in Salisbury Township have been so good to her.

"This district educated my four kids," she said. "My work in the office just seemed like a way I could give back to this community."

Grejda is not a native of Salisbury Township. She grew up in Coaldale and moved to Michigan with her husband, Dennis, where he worked for Ford Motor Company. The couple came to Salisbury in 1978 when Dennis took a position with Mack Trucks.

Grejda joined the Truman staff as a clerk in 1993, becoming secretary for the school when Nancy Heckman retired from the position in 2010. Grejda said it was as simple as moving from one chair to another. "

Nancy and I were such a team that we just jumped back and forth to do whatever had to be done. We just regarded ourselves as two people doing one job." Grejda said every day was a joy for her, but she particularly recalls some of the notes brought in by the Truman school children.

"Some of the notes were on napkins because a scrap of paper was not handy," she smiled. "One note even came in on a block of wood. And the kids could always relate the funniest stories," she said. It was insight she could not have gained any other way she said.

The mutual admiration between Grejda and the school is a two-way street. Principal Barbra Samide said she will miss Grejda's dedication and sense of humor greatly. "You don't work every day for eight years with someone and not form some strong bonds," Samide said.

Another everyday contact, who says he will miss Grejda greatly, is school custodian Doug Lapp. "We have had some awesome times together," Lapp related. "Her heart, her compassion and the blessings we have shared over the past 20 years have been overwhelming to me. We all love Carole so much."

Grejda said she will miss seeing her twin grandchildren, Andrew and Nolan, every day in school. But she knows she'll be able to come back occasionally and share lunch dates with the second graders.

Samide says she'll miss Grejda's wisdom, compassion and friendship, but Grejda says she has a great replacement coming in behind her in Shannon Rooney. While Grejda won't be there for those hectic first few days of the school year next week, she says she knows "Shannon will do a great job."