The graduation ceremony at an Anne Arundel County high school lasted all of five minutes, just long enough for one teenager to walk across the stage in cap and gown as his family and friends cheered.

The miniature commencement yesterday at South River High School, to a piped-in version of "Pomp and Circumstance," granted the wish of Joy Washington, who fears that she won't live long enough to see her son graduate in May.

The Edgewater resident has been battling ovarian cancer for nine years, and her doctors told her recently that she might not have much time left.

"This has made me so happy," she said after 18-year-old Devon's ceremony. "And perhaps I'll be at the other one, too, but if not, I've got this one in my pocket."

After learning about Washington's deteriorating condition, her boss at South River Nursing and Rehab Center, where Washington has worked for 18 years, contacted South River high officials to find out whether they could arrange a photo shoot of Devon in cap and gown for his mother to see.

School officials were happy to help, but they learned that 50 relatives and friends were flying or driving in.

They put a podium in the auditorium, gave Devon baby-blue graduation garb, invited county school board members and had Principal William Myers, in his own gown, give a short speech.

"We wanted to make it as nice as possible for him," Myers said later.

Washington was overcome with dizziness and had to be helped to her seat. But in other ways, the graduation ceremony seemed like any other, with Devon smothered by relatives' kisses as he tried to chat with friends.

After the ceremony, Debbie McConnell, Joy Washington's employer, presented Devon with $560 that his mother's co-workers had donated.

Graduation is often a time of uncertainty, and that is especially true for Devon. He has no siblings, and his father was killed seven years ago in a car accident. Some in his extended family worry about the challenges he will face.

"It's been tough ever since he lost his father," said an aunt, Claudia Washington. "We're still trying to be involved with his life, and now with his mother ... I think it's going to be even worse."

He plans to become an auto mechanic, but said he has found it hard to look ahead when his mother is sick.

"Everything is day by day," he said.

Washington has not given up hope that she will live to see her son graduate with the rest of his class in June. But in the meantime, she said, "it's come to fruition, and it's all good, and I got to see living proof of that myself with my own eyes."

david.zenlea@baltsun.com