Last week, a post on the Facebook group Stern College: In the Know announcing the retirement of “Marcella, the cheerful security guard of 215 Lexington” hit charts as the second most-liked post in the group’s history.
The group’s most impressionable post is a meme that reads “It doesn’t matter how you’re doing on finals as long as your future husband is acing his.” This time around, the conversation was more sentimental in nature and the commenters were all in agreement.
Over her career, Marcella earned a reputation around campus for brightening everyone’s day with her cheerful smile and greetings of “Good mornin” and “How you doin?”
One Stern alumni related in the comments how Marcella looked out for her while she was pregnant. “Every time I passed her, she would ask me how I was feeling. I came back to school a week after having my baby and she saw me and excitedly asked me how my baby was! She always brightened up my day.” This comment prompted many more group members to open up with their stories reflecting on how Marcella cared for everyone and made each student feel special and acknowledged.
“I’m really going to miss her—she really makes my morning!!! Can we make a petition against this?” commented Leah Feygel. Many replied agreeing that school without her is unimaginable.
But as fate had it, Marcella’s last day at her desk in front of the 215 revolving doors arrived Thursday. There was a crowd of students around Marcella’s post to snap selfies and hug her goodbye. Some bought her boxes of chocolates and bouquets of flowers to thank her for her time here.
“Oh, you’re gonna make me cry!” Marcella told Lee Sahar after she was handed a printed out copy of the Facebook post’s comments thread.
Although Marcella says she is “looking forward to retirement,” she still feels nostalgic about leaving Yeshiva University.
“I worked here for 10 years. [I] love the students, love the faculty, and I’m going to miss it all,” she told The Observer.
We’re all sad to see such a beloved member of the Yeshiva University community go, but we thank Marcella for her time here and wish her the best in her retirement.