Maureen did not get great grades.
Maureen did not get great grades. Screenshot/Edmonton Sun

Sanj Maisuria’s house in Edmonton, Canada, had a secret hidden in its walls since 1957—a report card for one Maureen Kiernan, who, it’s easy to imagine, tried to hide her bad grades by slipping the card into a crack.

Maisuria’s contractors found the report card while renovating the house, reports the Edmonton Journal. It’s not clear how the card made its way into the walls, but the grades were not good. “Maureen’s marks are dangerously low!” the teacher wrote.

Her written language and spelling, her math skills, and social studies were all poor. She did slightly better in science, where she was marked “fair, below average.” In English Literature, Health and Personal Development, and Phys Ed, she got a B, average.

The school also graded “Growth in Citizenship.” Maureen’s self-respect was a 2 (good), as was her cooperation and dependability. But her creativeness and judgment were both poor, according to the teacher. The only perfect mark she got was in courtesy.

When Maisuria first saw the card, he imagined finding its owner. He was able to find her son, but the girl with the bad marks had died, at 69, in 2012. She was, writes Juris Graney for the Journal, “co-operative, dependable, a person who showed consideration for the rights and feelings of others, a person with self-control and poise”—proof that math grades aren’t the most important thing in life.