Our Granddaughter's Confirmation and Graduation

Caroline Rose Gilmer, our youngest grandchild (out of 5) was confirmed by the Bishop of Charleston (SC) Diocese at St. Anthony's Church, Florence, SC, on Sunday, May 29, 2010. She is standing by the Bishop. Most of the kids in the photo have just completed the 8th grade.


We were unable to attend since we were at my niece's wedding the same day. The confirmation date was set after we made plans to attend Beth's and Matt's wedding.

I helped her pick out her confirmation dress when we were visiting them at Easter. Here she is pictured with Bill, her dad (our youngest son).

The next photo is of Caroline with her sisters, Katie and Nerissa. They are both in college (Nerissa a Senior at Clemson and Katie a Sophomore. at College of Charleston).

For her confirmation, Caroline had to prepare a scrapbook of her journey in life. It contained photos of her 14-1/2 years, as well as momentos of her years at St. Anthony.

We arrived in Florence on Tuesday morning around noon and spent the afternoon with the girls, planning a graduation party for the next day at noon.

The two big sisters were busy as beavers getting things together. Katie wanted to bake the cake and decorate and got up early on Wed. to bake it. My sister Alice and her husband Jerry arrived from Charlotte, NC,  in time for lunch on Wed.  

The girls' mother died when they were very young (Caroline was 1 year old) and Alice was always there to help them out and attend their school functions, ball games, etc. She is like a grandmother to them. They call her "Great Aunt Alice Dearest".


Graduation was at 6:30 pm on Wed., June 2 at St. Anthony catholic church. Just as we arrived at the church, it started raining and there was lots of lightning and thunder during graduation.


It was a mass as well as graduation so we were there an hour or longer. There were only 6 students in the 8th grade and next year they will all enter the 9th grade at different schools. Caroline will go to West Florence and be in a class of over 400 students. When I asked if she was nervous, she replied that she was going to play soccer  and that she was excited about the big class, just thinking of all the new friends she will have. I guess that's one way of looking at it.

Caroline won all of the awards in her class but one and it was in Music. She was an A student and excelled in everything, including Spanish, computer, art, principal's award, highest achiever, and some more. When graduation was over, we went to the Parish Hall for refreshments, just as a big fire truck pulled up to the church with lights flashing. Seems the lightning caused the fire alarm to go off!

So Caroline's graduation ended with natural fireworks and red lights flashing! And it continued to rain most of the night.

We came home the next day and Caroline went to Myrtle Beach with her classmates and several adult chaperones for 3 days.

On the way home we realized we have been going to events at St. Anthony school since Nerissa started to 4K there in 1992 - a total of 18 years. We are going to miss all the events but will still go to church with them at St Anthony's when we visit.