For the Class of 2021, the word triumph sums up this accomplishment for the students at graduation. This was mainly due to the ceremony being held in the manner of a typical outdoor graduation, unlike in 2020. However, one mother of a former student sat in the crowd, and wasn’t able to see her son walk the stage. Marlene Cullum is the mother of Noah Sebastian “Seby” Cullum. Seby passed away two years ago in July of 2019 as a result of a tragic accident involving an off-road vehicle. In an exclusive interview, Cullum shares feelings about being at her son’s class’s graduation, and some general emotions she felt attending the event.

Seby was honored at the ceremony with a decorated seat, where his picture, along with gown and cords were present. For Cullum to experience her late son being honored, she says, “Just the world that everyone remembered him, and Central did such a great job of honoring him.” She also mentioned how she was happy that Seby was present with his friends that night.

One might have also seen the locker in the hall on the first floor. It was decorated by Cullum’s daughter. “They offered that to her last year,” Cullum says. “She came in at night and decorated that for him. That was very nice of them.” The locker could be seen with pictures of him, and Post-it notes with messages from classmates.

She flashes back to the day of the incident. She said that, “Nobody saw the accident,” and that he was alone. “He died instantly, and I am thankful for that,” she says. “It was just a normal day and he was having so much fun at our family’s house in Oklahoma. Fishing and being as crazy as he normally was- loud and laughing and having so much fun that day, and he was just enjoying the day with his cousins.”

She gave a speech at the Mother-Son Luncheon back in May, sharing a story of her son. The story takes place three years ago, during their first Mother-Son Luncheon as apart of the Central Community. She retold the story, saying, “He and Max Bohanan got their lifeguard certifications together, and Seby got a job for lifeguarding. And it was the first weekend that the pool, and he called me to work and he said, ‘I don’t want to say no that they asked me to work.’ And I said, ‘Seby, for this year we’ll skip, but next year they’ll know you, they’ll know you’re a hard worker, and we will be at that mother-son thing junior and senior year. No excuses.”

Cullum says that she has persevered through the loss, and that she and her family are doing just fine. She claims that there is not one day that goes by when she doesn’t ask why. However, she did share some advice to those in her shoes, dealing with a loss, saying, “I think the most important foundation is your faith, and you never know in any instant, how you will react to a situation. And you hope that it’s with faith and with love, and I think, faith is just the foundation in everything… You have to trust God and sometimes, we don’t like those answers and sometimes we don’t like the path that he’s put us on, but there’s a reason and we’ll know it someday.”