Lunchtime at Elm Street Elementary just hasn’t been the same lately, not since Denise Haggard has been away. Haggard has worked in school cafeterias for about 15 years, the last few as the cashier at Elm Street, and she is eager to get back to it.

But the doctors haven’t yet told her when she’ll be able to return to work, and she suspects they won’t make a decision until after the radiation treatments. Haggard has breast cancer and is currently undergoing her second round of chemotherapy, but the thing that really bothers her right now is not being able to see the students at her school.

“These kids are so sweet,” Haggard said recently while sitting outside the cafeteria watching the students file in, most of them smiling and waving as they passed or asking when she will be back. “I came back at Christmas to tell them how much I miss them.”

They miss her too — and not just the students. In the half hour that Haggard sat outside of the lunchroom wearing her pink bandana and “Fight Like a Girl” shirt, no less than 12 teachers and staff members came by to hug her, ask her how she’s doing, and offer their support.

“Everyone loves Denise, but she has had it rough,” said Barbara Carter, director of school nutrition for Rome City Schools. “She truly does not give up.”

The doctors discovered Haggard’s cancer in August during her first mammography in nine years, an examination she says she would not have gotten had a coworker not encouraged her to do so. The first round of chemo followed, and she’s on her second now with two more to follow. Then comes radiation.

Haggard said the support she’s received from her school has been invaluable, and to prove it she pulled from her purse three stacks of letters and hand-drawn cards from students.

There are about 550 students at Elm Street, and before she became sick Haggard could tell you the name of each and every one.

“She has a special place in their little hearts,” said Evelyn Couey, nutrition program manager at the school. “It’s not been the same without her, that’s for sure. We miss her and want her to come back, and the kids do, too.”

Couey said students often ask about Haggard, and while the older children mostly understand what she’s going through, the younger ones are always told she’s not feeling well and will be back at school when she feels better. They were eager to make the get-well cards when they heard it would make Haggard feel better.

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“My favorite one has a picture of me at the cash register with kids on both sides,” said Haggard while thumbing through the cards. “And one of the kids is asking, ‘where are you?’”

When she first applied for a job at North Heights Elementary, Haggard said it was only going to be a part-time gig, but she enjoyed being around children so much it became a career. She said everyone at Elm Street is sort of like a family.

Her school family has been incredibly supportive, she said, and during the holidays Carter organized a fundraising event to help cover some of the insurance costs. Carter, for her part, said she’s looking forward to Haggard coming back and she’s eager to do whatever she can to help.

“They always keep in touch with me, checking on me. It’s just touching,” said Haggard.

Her coworkers expect her to be back as soon as the doctors allow, and they know she’s hurting to get back to work. Carter likes to tell a story about the time Haggard needed stitches to close a bad cut on her hand from a broken plate.

“She told the surgeon, ‘you have to stitch me up so I can go back to work and serve these kids.’ Of course she couldn’t go back to work so soon,” said Carter. “But that’s the sort of woman Denise is.”