Letter from a former Westleigh student

[Rosie's husband posting this]

We received a letter in the mail from Dr Margaret Stewart, a former Westleigh student, and thought it deserved a place on this blog. Many thanks to Margaret for sending it to us:

"I was a pupil at Westleigh from 1938 to 1942 when my parents moved to the country. At the time I started all state schools had been closed because polio epidemic.

It was very exciting to go to school on a bus, which picked me up. As I remember it, Dorothy Good and Roberta Mott were picked up in the same area. I caught up again with Bobby Mott at the Royal Melbourne.

I was in Thornton House. I remember learning French, like a game of bingo, with a master card and lots of little coloured cards to place on the master when a French object wsa named, - but no prizes.

When my mother told Misses Everard that we were moving to the country they said they would be happy to have me as a boarder but by that time I knew my mother was pregnamt and didn't want me to miss out on any of that.

Miss Everard said to me, "You have a voice - make sure you use it!" And so I have sung all my life, not professionally but solo, choirs, and madrigals - and I am still.

When I googled Westleigh I was sorry to have missed the reunion last year.

My maiden name was Margaret Abrahams, but now I am Dr Margaret Stewart."

 We appreciate you sharing your story with us Margaret!

An important note and thank you to the readers of this blog

Dear readers and friends,

It is with much sadness that we must let you know that the author of this blog, Rosie, passed away a few days ago, 3 months after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

Rosie bravely underwent the recommended  chemotherapy and radiation treatment, as well as some adjunct alternative therapies, alas this type of tumour is rarely survived.

Rosie was a beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, and will be lovingly remembered by many friends and relatives.

We thank you for your readership, it has meant a great deal to Rosie - she loved doing this blog and it was a great way to reconnect with fellow students of Westleigh.

Thank you,
George, 6 April 2017
Ph 0418 884 174

For Rosie's other blog, please go here: http://retrainyourbraintohappiness.blogspot.com/

Westleigh College Reunion - November 13th 2016

                                                            

                                                                  

After some 56 years old school friends get together again!

I thought it was a great day, and many thanks to Miriam for organising  it.
The venue was great, the company was even better!

I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.

Here are a few stills I managed to get and I am hoping, perhaps, some of the other girls will send me some more.         

                                                           

                                                            
Hopefully there will be more to come. Stay tuned!

Some more from Miriam, just received - thanks very much, Miriam!

 

"What a wonderful afternoon we all had last Sunday. Although I’d been hoping to do something like this forever, it would never have happened without the help of a number of ladies on this list. 

To Elana, whose inspired choice the restaurant was, well done. Thanks to Rosie for the Westleigh blog, through which many of us have reconnected. And Elana and Robyn for following up on ladies they’ve kept contact with."

                                                                

                                   

    

                                                           

           

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at 90

                                                                

                                                                   

Here is a thought experiment for anyone who has “made it” — who has scrambled to the top of their heap. Look in the mirror and ­remind yourself that you haven’t, by and large, achieved success through personal merit. You have been lucky. Brains, determination and looks are randomly ­distributed.
                                                    

The world is unfair. People who have risen to the top of any small pyramid have mostly got there ­because of good fortune. Whether they are well-remunerated grandees from the financial services ­industry counting their bonuses, or preening media types, or actors, or even entrepreneurs worshipping their creator, they haven’t achieved what they have simply by guts and hard work.

Guts and hard work matter but they bring disproportionate ­rewards to those born, randomly, with the brainpower, good health and family security to make use of them; and then they are super-­effective if good luck in your education and connections helps you up the tree.

It’s an obvious, almost mundane thought, but it’s rare that people who have “made it” like to acknowledge the obvious. We live in a raw and abrasive meritocracy that likes to pretend those on top have got there because they thoroughly deserve it. So what does that say about everyone else? To acknowledge the randomness of good fortune is more than politeness; it’s humanity.

And so to the Queen. It’s often said that it’s because we don’t ­really know her that she has ­managed to stay so popular for so long. By now, this year, her vast popularity seems a given, blandly accepted.

It didn’t seem that way in 1992 — her “annus horribilis” — when The Sunday Times serialised ­Andrew Morton’s searing bio­graphy of Diana, Princess of Wales.

It didn’t seem that way in 1997, after Diana’s death, when for several eerie days the monarchical country of the United Kingdom seemed mutinous. In fact, when you think back over the Queen’s reign, the Windsor story has been much more wrinkled and difficult than it can seem today.


By Andrew Marr


With many thanks to The Australian

                                                               

                                                                    

                                                                     

                                                                       

                                                                             

                                                                       

                                                                 

                                                              

Queen Elizabeth II Becomes Britain's Longest-Serving Monarch

                            

                                                                           

An incredible achievement!

Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne in February 1952 and has surpassed the reign of Queen Victoria.

                                                                 

                                                                        

She has seen the comings and goings of many British Prime Ministers.

To date, the Queen has given regular Tuesday evening audiences with her 12 Prime 
Ministers: 

                                                                 

Winston Churchill (1951-55); 
Sir Anthony Eden (1955-57); 
Harold Macmillan (1957-63); 
Sir Alec Dounglas-Home (1963-64); 
Harold Wilson (1964-70 and 1974-76); 
Edward Heath (1970-74); 
James Callaghan (1976-79); 
Margaret Thatcher (1979-90); 
John Major (1990-97); 
Tony Blair (1997-2007);
Gordon Brown (2007-2010); 
David Cameron (2010-2016).
Theresa May  (2016 - ?)

 
                                                                       

                                                                     

 
                                                                        

Picture credits and more on my other blog.