Many students pay no heed to the people who often clean up after them. However, one of these custodians has written and illustrated her own books.  

She is Becky Flood, and she is retiring from South after 6 years.  

Flood has self-published many of her own books, some of them about her own kids. 

“[For] my middle daughter is Charles and Lacey, which is a soft Winkey, and a Victorian teddy bear come to life through the life of a child,” says Flood.  

However, it was not her original plan to retire now; she was planning on staying at South for about 3 more years. 

“I’ve acquired an injury that cut down my productivity,” says Flood, “That’s really why I’m retiring. I don’t like putting the load on these guys of things that I used to be able to do, but I can’t do it now.” 

Prior to this, Flood was a missionary. 

“We lived in South Dakota, and we were ministering to five different reservations,” she says. 

Now that she is retiring, she is planning to spend more time with her family and to continue to write children’s books. 

“I am going to go back to writing my children’s books and illustrating my children’s books. I’ve got 34-36 manuscripts and notebooks right now that I have not published, lots of illustrations. I illustrate,” says Flood. 

One of her books, The Colors in the Island of Art, features a family of bears that teaches about colors, as she was previously an art teacher for 17 years. 

“I wrote a curriculum that I could teach the kids and then have also lessons for the parents,” says Flood, “Through this, I teach the principles and elements of art.” 

The thing that she will miss the most about her job is being able to help the students. 

“I’ll miss just being able to come up alongside of the kids, to give them some uplift when they seem down. Even when I want to put them on the coat hook, [and say] stay here until I back to you!” says Flood. 

Her impromptu retirement does, however, make her sad. 

“I planned on working at least 2, 3, 4, years. I was planning on going out with Perry and Dr. Gettings. Dr. Gettings was the one who first hired me. He really lifted me up,” says Flood. 

From Flood’s experience, she has learned to to take responsibility. 

“We’ve got to take ownership,” says Flood, “And that’s always been my thing. You’ve got to take ownership in your position. You’ve got to be a good example to those you are around. A positive example. It’s hard to do sometimes, but you got to be very positive.”