CHARLIE KOENIG / GAZETTE-JOURNALSunday’s Mathews High School graduation ceremony definitely looked different from celebrations in years past, as precautions were taken in the light of the coronavirus pandemic. In photo at left, Damian Walters receives his diploma from MHS principal Alexis Foster. At right, Brooke Barefoot and other seniors wait outside their cars as school board chairman John Priest confers the diplomas.

It was a graduation ceremony unlike any held before, as the 93 members of the Mathews High School Class of 2020 were able to gather one last time at the school on Sunday afternoon to receive their diplomas and officially become high school graduates—something that was far from a certainty just a few weeks earlier as the nation continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to the roughly hour-long commencement, cars with the graduates (and family and friends) lined up at Thomas Hunter Middle School to make the drive to MHS 10 cars at a time.

While the P....