SACO, Maine — With final exams out of the way, and caps, gowns and tassels procured, the only thing left to figure out is the order they’ll march in as three generations of a single Maine family get ready to graduate from college together in Portland this weekend.
Tanner Meserve, 22, his mother Melissa Meserve, 45, and grandmother Brenda Plummer, 66, will all receive degrees at the University of Southern Maine’s 144th commencement at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Saturday.
“I think she’ll probably go first,” said Tanner Meserve, pointing at his grandmother. “She deserves it.”
“That way, if I trip going up the stairs to the stage, they can catch me,” Plummer said, chuckling.
“It’s going to take some coordinating — and coordination,” Melissa Meserve said, smiling at both of them.
The trio were gathered at the Saco location of the University of Maine at Augusta on Thursday afternoon, bantering away, clearly enjoying each other’s company. All three live on the same Limington property and have always been each other’s sounding boards and support systems.
Tanner Meserve and his grandmother, a former long-haul trucker, also like to play video games together.
“I have 77 different games,” Plummer said. “I played World of Warcraft for 14 years.”
She said her current favorites are “7 Days to Die” and “Lethal Company.”
“The woman plays more video games than I do, and I’m 22,” Tanner Meserve said.
It was sometime last year when they realized they’d all be done with school at the same time.
Tanner Meserve is getting a bachelor’s degree in health science as part of USM’s accelerated occupational therapy program. He’ll have his master’s by next spring.
His mother, Melissa Meserve, has earned a USM master’s degree in adult and higher education. She’s already working as a math instructor and academic coordinator for the Saco and Old Orchard Beach adult and continuing education program.
Plummer, the family matriarch, will receive her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies, with a minor in psychology and advocacy, through UMA. She works in the college’s Saco office.
“I want to work with, and advocate for, domestic violence victims,” Plummer said. “Help them recover and go to school.”
All three will end up using their new degrees in “helper” lines of work, which is no accident: community service is a family tradition.
Melissa Meserve said she, her husband, their three children and Plummer have never spent much time celebrating Christmas at home. They always spend most of the holiday volunteering at their church’s community luncheon.
Likewise, for years on Thanksgiving, the family would rent a local community hall and put on a huge spread for their extended family and anyone else who might not have a place to go.
“One year, I think we had 40 people — lots of family, along with some people we didn’t know at all,” Tanner Meserve said.
But the family faced a dilemma in the run-up to their simultaneous college graduations.
Originally, Plummer was going to be forced to make a choice between attending her own UMA ceremony, or watching her daughter and grandson graduate from USM, which they’d be doing on the same day.
“Everyone was encouraging me to go to my own. But I wouldn’t do that. I wanted to see him graduate,” she said, pointing to her grandson. “He didn’t get a high school graduation.”
Tanner Meserve’s high school diploma came in the mail after an online ceremony in 2020, the best his high school could do during that pandemic year.
But when university officials caught wind of Plummer’s dilemma, they arranged for her to collect her UMA degree at USM’s ceremony. What’s more, a USM dean has promised the trio can sit and march together, as well.
After the ceremony, Tanner Meserve will get right back to work in his intensive occupational therapy program. Melissa Meserve and her mother have other plans.
“We’re flying to Texas, then taking a road trip to Vegas, to see some shows,” Melissa Meserve said.
Plummer went to 38 states while driving her big rig, but never out west.
“I want to see a cowboy,” she said.
