As adults, most of look back on grade school with fondness.
It’s a carefree time, full of learning, friendship, and plenty of people who could be described as ‘real characters.’
After all, the teachers and other faculty members you have in grade school know that they’re dealing with little ones, and they are great at making the big world less scary with plenty of kindness and humor, as we saw with the kindergarten teacher who never forgot her shy student as he grew up.
In fact, while some faculty members may eventually move on to another school system, the best become longstanding institutions within the school system, and pillars of the community.
From Prosperity Heights Elementary School, one of those institutions was a woman named Ginny Bultman, but more often called, simply, the Lunch Lady.
Scroll through the gallery below to learn more about Bultman, and the long-lasting impact she had on her community!
Virginia Bultman started working on the East Side of St. Paul, MN back in the early 1970's.
She worked in the cafeteria, handing out nutritious lunches, but became so much more than just another friendly face to the students who crossed her path.
She was a confidante, a storyteller, and a warm maternal presence to the kids that passed through her lunchroom, and they loved her for it.
Bultman, better known to her students as Miss Ginny or the Lunch Lady, made a point of giving each child that passed through her line a hug.
She asked questions about their days, and was well known for dressing up at the holidays.
According to an interview her nieces gave WCCO, kids were particularly fond of touching her hair, which she kept bouffant and tidy, with "about a can of Aquanet."
Bultman never had children of her own, but she loved her nieces and nephews, and impacted the many, many young lives that passed through her lunch line.
She worked in the school system for three decades, eventually retiring in the later 90's.
Even after she retired, though, she came back to the school as a volunteer, helping the kids with their reading.
Her warm maternal presence made a huge impression on the kids, too.
They were devoted to 'Miss Ginny,' and would often bring her artwork and drawings.
For example, this particular drawing is a Christmas scene, complete with decorated tree and snowman, and is addressed "To: Ginny and Marge."
The school was a huge part of Bultman's life, but she also made plenty of time for her other love, her husband Donald.
The pair were married for decades, and wrote each other reams of love letters of their years together.
After 54 years together, Donald passed away in 2009.
Ginny, in her later years, was cared for by her nieces, and didn't have the same kind of energy she once devoted to the school.
But even though she couldn't visit Prosperity Heights like she once did, the school remained a part of her.
Three decades at the school left their mark on Ginny, who had known the food preferences and allergies of nearly thirty years of grade-schoolers.
More importantly, however, Ginny left an impression on the school, and on the kids she met over the years.
She passed away last month at age 87, leaving behind her loving family, and the many students that kept in touch with her after she retired.
Her niece Nanette Hoover perhaps put it best when she said, "You could look at this and say, 'What a very simple life,' and when you step back and look at the impact that she had on people, all of a sudden that simple life doesn't seem quite so simple anymore."
If this beautiful and lasting legacy touched your heart, check out the full interview in the video below, and please make sure to SHARE Miss Ginny's not-so-simple life with friends and family!
