For Some Dexter Graduates, Commencement Comes with a Jade Plant and a Mission

By Jude Crittenden

A quiet tradition has been unfolding among a select group of Dexter High School graduates for years: receiving a jade plant and a short poem to accompany them as their future lives unfold.

The tradition started in 1983 when a 39-year-old woman, herself a mother of three high school kids and an administrative clerk for a city in Ohio, took an unexpected and impromptu vacation to San Diego, California.  The young and vibrant woman named Ruth Maag, recently diagnosed with terminal, stage 4 cancer, asked her firefighter husband to splurge and take her on a faraway vacation, something they had never done before.  Ruth had never been more than a four-hour drive by car from her home.  Going to California, on an airplane, seemed exotic and a good antidote to distract her from the grim reality of her medical prognosis.

While in San Diego, Ruth fell in love with the jades that were ubiquitous yard plants, common in the neighborhood she visited by the beach. Just before leaving California, Ruth clipped a 6” branch from the bush in the front yard of the home she stayed in for five days, tucked it in a towel, and gently packed it in her suitcase for the return trip to Ohio. 

Although not formally educated, Ruth was an avid reader. And she was fond of speaking in metaphors. She would tell her children and the neighborhood kids that hung out at her house to read books.  If you want to travel but cannot, read about it and you’ll be there. If you want to broaden your horizons, read about your future potentials and possibilities.  If you want to understand….read about it.  Not an expert….start reading. Need inspiration….read more. Ruth felt reading could take you places and turn you into someone more than you are today.

After arriving back from her California vacation, Ruth told her son Eric that, because of her cancer, she didn’t have many days left and she wanted him to take this jade branch, plant it, nurture it, and remember her, through it, for the rest of his life.  And that was the beginning of Eric’s Personal Jade Journey. 

Ruth told Eric that life would throw him curveballs, and he’d have to adapt. Some days would be sunny while others dark and melancholy. Some victories would come easily while others would remain elusive.  Ruth instructed her son, moving forward, to be kind and useful, hold existing friends close, make new friends every day and to love and live life with an intensity and sense of adventure that will make others want to be your friend too.

Eric planted his mom’s 6” jade stem and has continued to nurture it for over four decades since Ruth’s death.  

Ruth’s 6” jade…4 decades later (today); vibrant, impressive and unique.

Eric has carried on his mom’s exhortation by giving certain, favorite DHS students their own small jade plant and a copy of his mom’s favorite poem….for them to begin their own Personal Jade Journey. 

D.L.Y.G.

A “Personal Jade Journey” poem

                                                Strong or weak,

                                                Loud or meek,

                                                You’ll reach your peak….

                                                When you Dance Like You’re Gorgeous.

                                                Young or old,

                                                Straight or gay,

                                                You can have your say….

                                                If you Dance Like You’re Gorgeous.

                                                Fat or skinny,

                                                Smart or dumb,

                                                Rich or poor,

                                                You’ll own the floor….

                                                Each time you Dance Like You’re Gorgeous.

                                                Yesterday’s gone,

                                                Today is here,

                                                And….tomorrow,

                                                You’ll have the power….

                                                So, Dance Like You’re Gorgeous.

And should anyone question whether life-lessons can be learned from a small jade plant, the following vignette provides singular insight. 

With a 6” jade and his copy of Ruth’s favorite, the D.Y.L.G. poem, Clark Sheldon was a young DHS graduate headed off to Michigan State University in the autumn of 2024. Moving into the freshman dormitory, Clark placed his jade in an opportune spot on his dorm room’s west facing window. The west facing window provided his jade ample light and, with regular watering and attention, the jade thrived….until it didn’t.  

When winter arrives, centrally heated college dorm rooms in Michigan are, routinely, too hot. It is not unusual to see open windows in the freshman dormitories during the cold winter months. When school resumed after Christmas Break, the thermometer in East Lansing dropped below zero.  Clark’s roommate cracked open the window by the ledge the jade called home, dissipating the hot and fetid fug of the two young men’s abode, but…..Clark’s jade….froze to death. Or, Clark initially thought so. Jades are succulents that prefer warm California temperatures and sunshine, not the hostile, Siberian-like clime of East Lansing in January. But, jades are resilient and able to adapt to a plethora of hardships that would kill most other plants.  

Upon learning about the froze-to-death-jade in Spartyland, Eric offered a new jade sprout as a consolation to Clark.  Having already mastered a key lesson, Clark quickly responded, “Nope!  I’m on my Personal Jade Journey. I’ll have to make do with the parts of my jade that didn’t freeze. It’ll work out.”      

Clark rallied, snapped off the dead parts of his jade and re-planted the still-alive tidbits. Six months later, he reported back to Ruth’s son stating that he now has, not one, but three healthy and thriving jade plants….Clark’s exact statement was, “All the propagations are doing great!”

C.S.. started with one and now has three jades. “All the propagations are doing great.”

What can be learned from a 39-year-old woman with a terminal cancer diagnosis, and her life lessons couched in metaphors involving a 6” jade plant, a love of books, a silly poem, and an indomitable spirit?

The same things Clark learned at MSU on a cold January day. 

Life will throw you curve-balls, but you’ll have to adapt. Some days will be sunny while others, dark and melancholy. Some victories will come easy while others remain elusive. So, be kind and useful. Hold existing friends close and make new friends every day. Love and live life with an intensity and sense of adventure that will make others want to be your friend too. And read books!

Coinciding with Dexter High School’s upcoming graduation, free jade plants and copies of the poem Dance Like You’re Gorgeous will be available, while supplies last, at the Dexter District Library on Saturday, 5/30/2026.

Featured photo: Ruth Maag and her son Eric in the early 1980s. Before her death from cancer in 1983, Ruth gave Eric a small jade clipping from a California vacation and encouraged him to nurture it as a reminder to live with kindness, resilience, and adventure — the beginning of what Eric now calls his “Personal Jade Journey.”