Page 65 - Through a glass brightly

the class sat there in growing tension, knowing that any minute the alarms would start to go off-and she might be startled and spill it. So we cracked and put up our hands and said that we believed there were some alarm clocks in the cupboards -and we would go and turn them off. So no harm done!
Sadly, I think Susan Shears also died a few years ago. She had considerable acting and artistic talent. Sue was Orsino in Twelfth Night. (So much of my thinking is anchored in that play). Sue and I also wrote and produced our UVIth leaving production. Most of the inspiration for the stage craft came from Sue. As we neared the production date, there was still work to be done on the writing and Sue suggested that I went to Totteridge to join her for an evening's continued writing. It turned out that she had a baby-sitting commitment, so I joined her on that - which was to Spike Milligan's house. Unfortunately (for me) I never met Spike, who was away. Indeed it was his wife who was at home on her own with the children but wanted to go out. She swore us to secrecy about the baby sitting, as, so she said, Spike did not like her going out...
Monday, 4th May
From Judy at 12.43
It’s been amazing to read all these fascinating memories of the past and to hear what happened to some of our schoolmates.
I loved the poems, Maggie.
I had heard of Wendell
Berry before and read that
particular one. For some
time, I thought he was
Australian but he’s actually
American. There’s a lovely
one called ‘What we need is
here’, which you might like
to look up. The other one by
the local poet, though obvs
not in the same literary
class, was inspiring and
consoling. I enclose below a
poem by Elaine Feinman. It
seems apt for this strange
time: a quiet acceptance of mortality, but also celebrating the bright moments which stand out against the dark.
What was your favourite poem, Mag (Peart), when your group was choosing? I remember at one of the Commem. meetings, you talked about Christina Rossetti’s ‘Up- Hill’. I remember practically nothing about the Queen’s visit, except standing in the covered way to watch her go by (again, realising how small she was) and listening to her speech in the Hall. We were told afterwards that it was the first unscripted one she had ever made: quite an honour.
The classroom scene and netball courts are lost to my memory. I remember Miss Rhodes well. She always seemed cheerful and not as if she was too weighed down by us!
Oddly enough, I heard of her again at a later age. I was staying with my second cousin in Kent at the age of 18 or so, and a friend of hers visited. I can’t recall where this friend lived, but she had a close connection with Miss Rhodes or Mrs Shaw as she was by then. She told me she would mention me to M.R. and was sure she would remember me as ‘a good, quiet girl”. I grinned to myself as I was pretty certain she wouldn't remember me like that!
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