'The heartbeat of Elgin High School': Friends gather to surprise former secretary for her 88th birthday
Susan Fortner of Elgin often jokes with friends that the whole world celebrates her birthday on Dec. 31.
It may not have been the whole world, but you wouldn't have known it by her reaction to the crowd that surreptitiously gathered Friday on her front lawn to wish the beloved former Elgin High School secretary a happy 88th birthday.
“I'm overwhelmed,” Fortner said. “There aren't any real words I can say. I just love every one of the people here, and I can tell you a story about all of them.”
The surprise was organized by friend and former EHS teacher Melisa Creighton.
“She was the heartbeat of Elgin High School,” Creighton said. “She always had a smile for every teacher, for every parent, for every visitor to the school.
“You always left her desk feeling better.”
Fortner was the secretary to five principals for 37 years before retiring in 2017. She was the 2013 winner of the Kane County Regional Office of Education “support staff of the year” award.
“Anyone who has gone through Elgin High School, former students, teachers, administrators, whoever, she's just beloved to all of us,” said Creighton, who was a teacher at EHS for 12 years before becoming a teacher mentor for Elgin Area School District U-46 over the past six years.
Creighton said whenever she runs into anyone from EHS, the first question is always about Fortner.
“I know it isn't a decade birthday,” Creighton said. “But I just thought this was a really good time in a really crazy world for people to celebrate her.”
The city of Elgin agreed.
Mayor David Kaptain was among the more than 50 people at Fortner's home. He read a proclamation declaring Dec. 31 “Susan Fortner Day” in Elgin.
Creighton regularly visits Fortner for lunch. Before this visit, she let on that she had a little birthday surprise for her.
But Fortner wasn't expecting what she saw when she opened her front door. She spent the first several minutes fighting back and wiping away tears.
“You are so special and so dear to all of us,” Creighton said to Fortner before the crowd broke out in three choruses of “Happy Birthday.”
“We all hold you so close in our hearts,” she said, “and we are all better because of you.”
Afterward, it was Creighton who had to fight back tears.
“We just adore this woman,” she said. “She's done so much for Elgin High School, for the school district, and for all of us former teachers and students.”