In the eulogy of my late brother Richard that I delivered November 26, there was one story that I opted to omit but will share it here on FB. In the fall of 1951,Richard & I were both in Grade 7 at the one room Grades 1 to 8 school in the Charlotte County village of Oak Bay. A boy Ian Dunlop & his family had recently moved to the village of Oak Bay from Scotland & Ian Dunlop was in Grade 4 or 5. Ian was a reddish haired lad with an impish grin & freckles galore & a fascinating Scottish accent.. Our young teacher was the late Mary Anne Lowe in the first semester of her first year teaching with of course no support staff in such a school. At any rate Ian Dunlop one morning as he sat in his seat had an accident of unmentionable proportions…Ian began to fuss & cry. The teacher, Miss Lowe had not been taught in Normal School about such naturally occurring emergencies & seemed bewildered as to how best to handle this one. She did as best she could & requested a volunteer from the class [Grades 1 to 8 in the one room] to take Ian outside to the backhouse and to clean him up as best possible.. I thought to myself…Be darned if I were going to volunteer for such a mission…& out of all the students in the school only one volunteer would come to the aid of Ian…That person was none other than Brother Richard who promptly took Ian outside to the back house & did what he had to do. In retrospect ,I must say how very kind that was of Richard & demonstrated a level of maturity far beyond his years even then!
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 11:58:34 +0000