An influence in words and deeds

A great teacher can affect a person's life forever, and Caroline County was fortunate to have had two great teachers like Cay Cutright and her husband Mike.  The couple taught in Caroline County Schools for most of their adult lives; Cay as an English and Drama teacher at Lockerman Middle School and Mike as a PE teacher and Coach at North Caroline High School.

"Everyone in her English class called her ‘mom’," said oldest daughter Kim, "she saw all the kids in the community as her kids." 

Cay organized the school's theatre shows and often put 30 to 40 kids in a show so that no one would feel left out.

After retirement, the couple moved to Ocean View, Delaware, and Cay wrote the young adult fiction book "Starting Over."  The book’s theme is on how a family overcomes obstacles and sticks together.

Unfortunately, the theme hit too close to home for the family because on the day the book was delivered to their home in January this year, Cay passed away.

"I didn't just lose my wife, I lost my best friend," Mike said, "when Cay walked into a room she could make everyone smile. There was nothing fake about her.”

Mike encouraged Cay to write. "Her book was a big thing for our family, and since then I had my daughter write a book and I had two grandsons write books. Once someone you know does something you can say 'I can do that too'."

Their youngest daughter Cassie said her mom had a "way of making everyone feel seen and heard.  The book was her way of sending a message of hope to people.”

Kim recalls that, "at the funeral so many people reached out. Old students who said, 'she changed my life'. You don't really know a person's reach until afterwards people come forward and say things like that.”

Cay’s legacy is memorialized in her book, and her memory is imprinted in those who she taught and worked with and loved.