Just For Kids holds its last graduation

Terri-Lee Jones retires

- LESLIE LANDRIGAN

STONINGTON—Terri-Lee Jones admits she cries every time she reads the plaque she received when her Just For Kids daycare closed on May 28 after 34 years. One of her daycare mothers had it made for her, she said.

The plaque sits in her entryway on North Main Street, near the child-sized bench, the children’s photos, the plastic bins all neatly labeled, “Asa,” “Laylea” and “Lucas.”

The plaque has a poem on it, which begins: “Although you weren’t their mother, you cared for them each day. You cuddled, sang and read to them and watched them as they played.”

“It means the world to me,” said Jones, trying to hold back tears.

Like heaven

Brittany Jones worked with her mother for 11 years. She estimates about 700 children attended Just For Kids—and in some cases, multiple generations of the same family. “She’s gonna miss it,” Jones said in a phone interview.

Every Halloween, Dana Morey and her three children, Grace, Sean and Gabby, stop by Terri-Lee Jones’ house to reminisce about the good times they had at the daycare.

Grace, the former Miss Maine Teen USA, just graduated from Deer Isle-Stonington High School, along with seven other alumni of Just For Kids. “They adored her, they still do,” Dana Morey said. “It was like heaven.”