![\"Deborah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/73BKS5R4WJFN3BLYKGW7PC6AOI.jpg\")
Deborah Justice named April Silent Hero of the Wiregrass(WTVY)<\/p>\nGENEVA COUNTY, Ala. (WTVY) – Deborah Justice spent 38 years in Geneva County Schools, first as a cook and then as cafeteria manager, treating every student who came through the cafeteria doors like family.<\/p>\n
Justice retired in 2025 after nearly four decades of service. She worked in every school in the Geneva County system.<\/p>\n
Deborah Justice named April Silent Hero of the Wiregrass(WTVY)<\/p>\n
\u201cI always told the ladies, you know, that always treat this as your house,\u201d Justice said. \u201cHow would you want to be, if somebody came to visit you, what would you want the meal to look like?\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice said every employee in the system cares about the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked in every school in this system,\u201d Justice said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s not one school in this system that the administration, the teachers, the janitors, lunchroom ladies, that do not care about these kids. We all care about these kids. Every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
During her time as cafeteria manager, Geneva County Elementary School earned the Healthier US School Challenge Gold Award of Distinction, and Justice was invited to the White House to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Geneva County Schools Superintendent Becky Birdsong said Justice was professional, positive and dependable.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s the kind of employee who you want all the rest to model themselves after,\u201d Birdsong said.<\/p>\n
Birdsong said Justice always thought of others before herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is a giving person,\u201d Birdsong said. \u201cAnd everything she does. She did it in her job. She most especially does it in her family.\u201d<\/p>\n
When both of Justice\u2019s daughters were diagnosed with cancer, she was there for every treatment.<\/p>\n
Her daughter, Lorin Gomez was diagnosed in 2022 at 35 with head and neck cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was there everyday, she was there for every treatment we had, she was just that push we needed to make sure we got better,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n
Justice\u2019s other daughter Shanna Adams found out she had breast cancer in 2012 at 27 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can remember whenever I had my chemo, the really bad chemo. It really hit me at night. And I had to call her over to the house. And she\u2019s like, just come outside, get some, you know, fresh air,\u201d Adams said. \u201cAnd I just couldn\u2019t, I couldn\u2019t do it without her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both daughters are now in remission.<\/p>\n
Gomez said having a mother as strong-willed as Justice made the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust hearing the words you have cancer. That\u2019s a terrible thing to experience in life,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cAnd so know that you have a mother as strong-willed as she is that will be there for you. It\u2019s just the thing you need in that moment of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a hard time they couldn\u2019t imagine enduring without their mom, who steadied them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see them succeed and see them survive is wonderful,\u201d Justice said.<\/p>\n
For someone like Justice, the caregiving never stops<\/p>\n
\u201cMe being 40 years old, she still gives us a kiss on the cheek,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n
Justice said it\u2019s all part of what it means to be a mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy girls are heroes. I\u2019m just a mom, and that\u2019s what I am.,\u201d Justice said.<\/p>\n
While her daughters are her heroes, they say Justice is their hero.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s our backbone for sure,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n
While retired from the school system, Justice will never retire from always showing up for those she loves.<\/p>\n
Her legacy is written in every meal she served, and every hand she held in hard times.<\/p>\n
Download the WTVY News4 app to get alerts and stories the moment they are published. Available for FREE in the Apple App Store<\/a> and the Google Play Store!<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 WTVY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA COUNTY, Ala. (WTVY) – Deborah Justice spent 38 years in Geneva County Schools, first as a cook…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,32615,3815,32613,32614],"class_list":{"0":"post-58645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-geneva","9":"tag-silent-heroes","10":"tag-wtvy","11":"tag-wtvynews","12":"tag-wtvynews4"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116499032685727102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}