No one would blame Jana Bertrand if she’s a little tired of “Pomp and Circumstance.” After all, later this month will be the ninth time she watches one of her children don a cap and gown to receive a Lake Highlands diploma.
But the single mom who holds the record for most children to graduate from Lake Highlands High School is just as excited for her youngest child as she was for her oldest.
“I can’t believe I’ve made it to this point,” gushes Bertrand. “I’m very, very proud of them, and I feel very blessed.”
Bertrand’s bragging rights don’t officially begin until May 27 when her 10th child, Michael, crosses the stage like eight of his brothers and sisters before him. (Another brother graduated from Blair Academy.)
Though Michael is looking forward to finishing up high school, he doesn’t exactly share his mother’s enthusiasm about the ceremony.
“I’m just graduationed out. I don’t want to even go to my own because I’ve been to so many – college graduations, too,” he says, only half-joking. “I’ve always gotten to leave after the Bs, and now I don’t even get to do that. I’d rather just get my diploma in the mail.”
But he’ll be there. Partly because his brothers and sisters will be coming home so they can raise a ruckus when Michael’s name is called – “They’re going to embarrass me big-time,” Michael groans – and partly because Principal Bob Iden is cooking up a special presentation to honor the Bertrands. (The details are a surprise.) Iden has presided over five of the nine Bertrand children’s graduations.
“Honestly, I’m going to miss not having one of them around,” he says.
Bertrand’s journey to get her children to this point wasn’t easy. Her ex-husband left when Michael was in kindergarten, and Bertrand was forced to move her children from their 10-bedroom house in Oak Highlands to a much cozier home in Vista View.
“I wanted to stay in the neighborhood because of good friends and caring parents,” Bertrand says. “I could’ve moved out to the suburbs and gotten away from everything, and it would’ve been good for me, but I opted for stability for the kids – and it was the best option.”
Bertrand doesn’t know what she would have done without the neighbors who ran her children’s forgotten homework to the house, the parents who carpooled her kids to their activities – “I couldn’t be at four games at once,” Bertrand says – and the teachers who gave them the benefit of the doubt when grades plummeted after the divorce.
With their help, not to mention Bertrand’s own determination, her children didn’t just graduate from high school. All but two have gone on to college, one has a master’s degree, and two are doctors.
Now a first grade teacher at Highland Meadows Elementary School, Bertrand remembers the days when she worked three jobs at once so she could buy 10 gallons of milk and two carts of groceries each week. They had to scrimp and save, but in the end it was worth it, she says.
“Nothing replaces the time that you spend with your kids,” Bertrand says. “Our lifestyle changed drastically, but it’s not the things that matter – it’s the time and the effort. It does pay off.”
