(Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP) Olivia Mazerolle, president of the Nashua High School North Class of 2022, recalled classmate Tyler Almeida in an emotional address during Tuesday night's commencement.

NASHUA — Class of 2022 president Olivia Mazerolle stepped to the microphone at the center of the dais filled with Nashua High School North commencement celebrants and admitted she would rather have not spoken at all than lead off her speech with “it feels like just yesterday we were freshmen … .”

But sometime last year, Mazerolle, who is heading to Williams College in the fall, said her enthusiasm for the speech “became accompanied by an idea: starting her speech “by honoring someone who is not here today.”

That someone, Mazerolle said, her voice breaking with emotion, “is none other than Tyler Almeida,” a member of the Class of 2022 who passed unexpectedly in late 2020.

Lamenting being unable to “look right in his eyes at this very moment,” Mazerolle remembered Almeida as a kid who “would make you break out into laughter” but who also would occasionally “say something that made you think a little deeper about life.”

The emotional moments resurfaced a short time later when Almeida’s parents and his sister stepped onto the stage in Tyler’s place when principal Nate Burns called his name.

Just over 400 young men and women received diplomas under clear skies and ideal mid-June temperatures at a roughly 90 minute ceremony at Titan-blue bedecked Stellos Stadium last evening.

A full story and additional photos will appear in The Sunday Telegraph.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.