‘Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.’
— American author, Ally Condie
My friends, when was the last time you attended a class reunion or met your former classmates and schoolmates?
If you have attended many schools, colleges or universities, there are probably many class reunions for you to go to.
So far, the class reunions I have attended were organised by my former classmates and schoolmates in St Elizabeth’s Convent School, now renamed SMK St Elizabeth, in Sibu. I was at the all-girls’ school for my Form 1 to Form 5 education.
Although I continued my Form Six education at SMK St Thomas’ School (or St Tom) in Kuching, I had never attended a class reunion with my former classmates and schoolmates there.
When I was at St Tom from 1976 to 1977, the school accepted only boys for its Form 1 to Form 5 classes but the Sixth Form classes were open to girls.
Some of my classmates, schoolmates and I were the only batch of girls from St Elizabeth to be sent to St Tom for our Form Six education. As far as I know, the Education Department stopped doing that after 1976.
Anyway, back to the class or school reunions, my former classmates and schoolmates at SUDC Primary School No. 4 have been talking about meeting each other for years.
Personally, I have never met members of my entire Primary Six class or the other Primary Six classes at all since I left the co-ed school at Oya Road, Sibu.
There are WhatsApp groups for my former classmates and schoolmates from St Elizabeth and SUDC No. 4. However, I rarely chip in.
Recently, a former classmate from St Elizabeth, who’s now living in Toronto, Canada, flew first to Sibu and then to Kuching to meet some of us.
Later I had the chance to meet Mary Tang at a lunch organised and sponsored by Bernardine Chieng, a former classmate who studied at SUDC No. 4 and St Elizabeth with me.
Present at the meeting were a few other classmates and schoolmates from St. Elizabeth.
Mary, who had not met many of us since we left St Elizabeth, had problems recognising some of us.
“Adeline? Oh, I remember that name,” she said, when someone introduced me to her.
When someone introduced Florence Teo to her, Mary quickly responded, “ Oh, I recognise that voice.”
When our former classmates in Sibu first shared that Mary Tang was with them for a reunion, some of those in the WhatsApp group were confused.
“Which Mary Tang?” they asked.
You see, that particular, there were two Mary Tangs among the upper secondary students. The other Mary Tang was our head prefect in Form 5.
The confusion was quickly cleared when someone posted a snapshot of Mary Tang from Canada from a page in our old school magazine.
Now, that was not the original old school magazine. It was a reproduction of the entire old school magazine for one of our class and school reunions not so long ago.
But so much water has flowed under the bridge that I have forgotten the year of that particular reunion. I think that reunion was held in Kuching with the Sibu ‘girls’ coming over to Kuching. There was one particular year when I went back to Sibu for a reunion with my former classmates and schoolmates.
That was a grand affair. We visited the school and were brought round by the principal. We were proud to be accorded a warm welcome by the entire school.
Looking back, I think the most memorable moments of my school days were those I spent at St Elizabeth. We were so young and had much fun with one another.
We had some very good teachers who taught us well. I remember Madam Teo, who stressed the importance of good grammar to us, Maria Dris, who made us sweat and tremble every English class and Leslie, who taught us Bible Knowledge.
Even though we have left St Elizabeth aeons ago, I have glad some of my classmates, schoolmates and I are still so close to one another. Whenever we meet each other, it’s like we have never been apart. When it’s time to go our separate ways, we find it hard to bid each other farewell and we always promise to meet each other soon.
