OC News

Ruth Poole’s (Class of 1965) Lockdown in ‘Guate’

“Guate” being the affectionate nickname of Guatemala, for the “mala” ending might conjure association with all things “mal”. GuatemaYa would be more appropriate as here lies the heart of the Maya culture. And how have the Maya, and all other residents, adjusted to the 2020/2021 lockdown? Quite well, actually.

It is true that after the first official orders in March, when everything was to be closed from 2pm to 4am, panic ensued. There was no more Lysol on the shelves, nobody had masks, surely there were not enough toiletries, whoever heard of buying alcohol by the gallon, what on earth was sanitized hand gel, and of course there wasn’t enough sherry in the house for the faint-hearted! After we digested the fact that lockdown was obligatory, its disregard punishable by law, and that it had nothing to do with politics, people began to enjoy its novelty and talk, talk, talk about Covid-19 and how horrible bats in China really were.

Then the problems began. How were the kids going to study? How were we going to go to church? How were we to get home help? (Public transport was suspended.) How were we to see loved ones? How were we to comfort friends who needed comforting?

At first, the news of friends and acquaintances who had caught the disease was frequent. It was frightening, especially when one learned of deaths. Then, all kinds of remedies began appearing on our social media. Many worked. The cases of hospital recoveries also increased. We became a speck more hopeful. We realized strict adherence to wearing masks, keeping social distance, spraying with alcohol all things entering the home, (shoes, groceries), the endless washing of hands, and constant application of sanitized gel was, and is, the answer to staying alive.

Knowledge of technology has increased by leaps and bounds because willy-nilly, the children had to continue school and adults had better see to it. We have had to learn about Blackboard, about Teams, about Google drive, about Chat, about scanning, to say nothing of Zoom. Home schooling has become the norm and although a Mum, or an Auntie or a big brother may be a thoroughly conscientious teacher, and the child’s grades may actually improve, the lack of socializing and the lack of playtime is serious. I have found it has made my nieces much more introverted and the telephone or tablet is now an indispensable appendage wherever they go.

Our spiritual welfare couldn’t be neglected. In fact, we realised it was the very first thing we must bolster, strengthen. First, I discovered televised

masses. There were televised Sunday masses at all hours. It was fascinating to hear mass at 8 pm from, say, Slovenia! Now I have begun to listen daily to an early morning televised mass. At first, we were oh-so-lucky to have the Holy Sacrament administered by a friend who’s a lay Minister. It was such a privilege to have Holy Communion on Sunday in my little garden! Several cousins used to come too, until our church, (San Martín de Porres), opened up its large parking lot and cars are allowed in for Sunday Mass and lay Ministers come around with the Holy Host. Sunday Mass is now held in a giant auditorium where chairs are very widely spaced. You have to get there early!

“It is true that after the first official orders in March, when everything was to be closed from 2pm to 4am, panic ensued.”

Home help doesn’t arrive by public transport anymore. If we need help, we are to pay extra, for private transport, taxis, ubers, or small car owners profiting from a paid lift. Buses are gradually resuming routes but the new, lucrative trade for many ‘taxis’ is not going to go away soon

I have seen my brother twice these past eleven months! He’s a surgeon (honoured with an OBE) who gives time to a public hospital. He is extremely careful and changes clothes completely every time he gets home. He refuses to put us at risk so we have had tea once, around a garden terrace. John Anthony used to celebrate Christmas enormously, with lots and lots of relatives. Not this year. We had to forego hugs, or even seeing each other. But we were invited briefly to admire his ‘Nacimiento’, (Nativity scene) carefully built outside.

I hope we soon are as lucky as my 93-year-old Auntie Beryl in Pangbourne, UK She’s had the vaccine which I think will come to us as a form of liberation. It will feel like an un-chaining. We will be free to travel, we will be free to hug friends, we will be free to show our faces, we will be free to shake hands.

However, we will not be the same. Ever. Lockdown and confinement, and the real possibility of a death-dealing contagion, be it in Paris or London or Guate, encourages soul-searching. It forcers one to come to terms with the inescapability of one’s mortality. That is the question. The real question: Are we prepared?

For the Mayas, 2012 marked the end of a ‘bashactún’, (a colossally long period of 64,000 years), and the rebirth of a new era. Today, 2021 marks for all of us the end of a punishing period of enforced confinement and a hopeful reopening to a healthier, perhaps wiser world.

Cristo Negro de Esquipulas by Ruth Poole

“Omi! Grandma! It’ll soon be the 15th!” Christmas was over, Epiphany was over, decorations were down, presents put away, and school was about to begin. Not a welcome prospect. But… BUT, maybe a trip to Esquipulas, in the East of Guatemala, was in the air. Maybe a long journey with stops for juicy fruit, with a dip in a river, and a delicious breakfast after a night’s sleep in a picturesque, bouganvilliacovered ‘pensión’ (inn), was in the offing. Perhaps even a trip on a rickety train that took hours to get there in sweltering heat, but offered the constant amusement of merchants selling tortillas, mangoes, macadamia, cashews, fleshy coconuts full of their scented water, chico-zapotes (sapollias), you name it!

Then there was the arrival at the Basilica itself. A hushed silence enveloped it from the very beginning of the long, wide pathway to its open doors. Those first 200 yards in the open were speckled with penitents covering the distance on their knees, with supplicants holding lit candles of all colours and sizes, with pilgrims like ourselves, respectfully walking towards the seemingly interminable line of people waiting to come close to the image of the Christ of Esquipulas.

The image is black. Its nailed feet not so intensely dark because of the millions (yes, millions) of kisses bestowed upon them before the image was placed in its present glass enclosure to protect it.

The ‘Cristo Negro de Esquipulas’ was sculpted by Quirio Cataño at the request of Franciscan Friar Cristóbal Morales, then Provisor of the Spanish Bishopric in Guatemala, in 1595. Tradition holds that the image was petitioned black so that it might be readily accepted as one of their own by the Chortí Indians there inhabiting. Black is the colour of the gentle earth that makes one well.

Miracles began to occur. Healings happened. Petitions prayerfully sought after were granted. Veneration of the image increased. Visits to Esquipulas multiplied. Fame of the miraculous Cristo spread throughout the region. Its renown is such that today it is visited by pilgrims from all over the continent, from Peru to Mexico, from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles. Esquipulas has been referred to as the Mecca of America.

The respect commanded by the shrine is such that during the armed conflict that ravaged Guatemala, its site was chosen to bring together the conflicting parties so that they might find a common ground for peace. They did. Their deliberations, within the aura of El Cristo Negro brought about the successful Agreements of Esquipulas.

15th January is honoured as the Feast Day of the Christ of Esquipulas because then it was consecrated into its present temple, today elevated to Basilica. Caravans of bikers, numbering hundreds, motor their way to the church every year. Pilgrims make arrangements to walk to the shrine from their homes in the city at least once in a lifetime. And I will always remember holding Grandma’s hand while we bargained outside the Basilica for the best candles to light at the feet of our dear, miraculous Cristo de Esquipulas.

“And What about the Seventh Continent?”

Helen Medway O’Connor, OC '92 Joins the Homeward Bound Network of Women Scientists

Helen developed her passion for caring for the environment while she was a student at Mayfield School, and she now works as a Senior Climate and Environment Adviser for the UK Department for International Development.

Helen was accepted on a global leadership programme for women in STEM called ‘Homeward Bound.’ She explains, “The aim is to build a network of women from around the world who can work together not only to inspire the next generation of girls in science, but to take their place in leading work on finding solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges, including my area of climate change and environment.”

It was expected that the programme would culminate in a trip to Antarctica in September, where the members would meet with scientists researching climate change and pollution. But, Covid-19 changed their plans. Helen explains how unexpected events created an opportunity. “Firstly, I have more time to spend getting to know the women I’m working with, and sharing our learning and ideas on how we communicate and lead at times like this. Secondly, the voyage to Antarctica has been postponed and is now likely to take place at the end of next year or start of 2022 – but this gives those of us working on carbon offsetting and sustainability more time to work with the shipping operators to understand where changes can be made to reduce the environmental impact. So there is always a positive to be found!”

Mayfield Class of 2017 – Where are we now?

Many thanks to Cara Hodgkins (Class of 2017) for collating updates from her year group below:

MARTHA GABRIEL Graduated from the University of Leeds with a midwifery degree. Now working as a midwife in Leeds.

CORAL MAN Graduated from the University of Surrey with a degree in Creative Music Technology. Now working as a customer service administrator at a music academy. Her work is not related to music but she gets to play the Grand Piano there which is a bonus! Also singing in a trio named ‘Man to be three’ with her sisters, hoping their voices can reach to the audience's hearts.

IMMIE LONG Graduated from the University of East London with a First class honours degree in Advertising. Now has a full time job as a social media executive in a PR and Digital media agency.

IZZY GOATCHER Graduated from Chartered Institute of Marketing with a Level 4 professional certificate in Digital Marketing and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Now working as a Marketing Coordinator for Wightman & Parrish, a healthcare company in East Sussex.

LOTTIE TURNER In her last year of an integrated masters in Maths (MMath) at Durham University.

ALEX BOWEN Graduated from Durham University with a BA in Anthropology. Now working at Morgan Stanley in Equity Swaps Trade Support. Wanting to end up in something to do with the sustainability divisions of finance. DARCIE GOMER Graduated from Durham University with a degree in Anthropology. Now working as a sabbatical officer for the Junior Common Room at her college (Josephine Butler). Her title is Financial and Community Support Officer, she oversees the finances for the JCR and acts as a student representative overseeing the wider student experience and helping to organise events.

CARA HODGKINS In her final year at Oxford Brookes University studying History of Art. Will finish her degree in December 2021, then hopes to find a job/internship with a design company.

MATILDA TURNER In her final year at the University of Sheffield studying Geography. Embarking on a BA in Physiotherapy in September 2021.

MILLIE BARKER In her final year at Exeter University studying Drama. Covid permitting hoping to go travelling and do a marketing internship.

REGINA LAI Graduated from LSE with a degree in Philosophy. Currently doing a Law conversion in London and starting a Masters in Law at LSE in September.

MISAKI ARAI Starting a two year course at a Baking School in Kyoto in the Spring. EMILY CANTWELL-KELLY In her final year at Trinity College, Dublin studying Geography and Economics. Covid permitting hoping to go sailing offshore in the summer to practice for her yachtmasters exam. Then going to University of Kiel, Germany to study a Masters in Environmental Management.

LUCIA ŠVECOVÁ Graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Music. Currently working as a Music Graduate Assistant at Bloxham School but applying to German conservatories to do orchestral conducting.

SCARLETT VEREKER In her final year at the University of Bristol studying Criminology. Covid permitting hoping to work abroad in Europe while travelling and then returning home to get a job in Insurance. Ideally in cyber, political risk or bloodstock insurance.

KAT O’HARA In her final year at the University of Birmingham studying Philosophy and English. Next year will be teaching English under the Teach First programme.

SASKIA LARA Graduated from the University of Roehampton with a degree in Early Childhood Studies combined with Education. Became a mother to a little boy in August 2019. Now teaching Year 3 part time alongside blogging about teaching/parenting.

Fiona Hill nee Rourke (Class of '88)

Our wonderful WhatsApp group is helping a lot of us get through lockdown - of which there are 48 members. The past year has been tinged with sadness with some old girls losing parents and relatives, and some even unable to attend their funerals due to travel restrictions. Others have endured Covid themselves, including long Covid. However we have all supported each other through kindness, hope and good humour. Several ladies have been involved in the Covid effort directly through medical work, and others have volunteered to assist with the vaccine programme - Actions not Words! There are several teachers in our group and they have coped admirably with education in these times, some even juggling young families. We’re all looking forward to a brighter future when home schooling and remote learning seem a distant memory and we can all meet together in real life. In 2020 we had planned a large party to celebrate our respective 50th Birthdays at the Cafe Royal - the venue of our leavers’ ball in 1988. Sadly this didn’t take place but we remain hopeful for the event to take place in the not too distant future. Testament to the very enduring nature of friendships made at Mayfield".

Reflections on Mayfield in 1947 by Joanna Barker (Class of 1954)

When I arrived at The Convent of the Holy Child, Mayfield for the Summer term 1947, there were only about 100 girls in the school and we all lived and worked in the main Victorian building, which had steps leading up from a drive and had a large round lawn in front with the stump of a huge monkey puzzle tree. The area where the Sixth Form is now was the enclosure of the convent, and except for a small parlour where parents might see the Reverend Mother, we never entered the nun’s part of the building. The room of the Headmistress Mother Declan was on the left as one entered the school building. The classrooms were on the ground floor and each year had its own classrooms. The Art Room was on the first floor, with the dormitories for the smallest girls overlooking the front lawn, and there were two large dormitories on the right. Other smaller dormitories were along the corridors towards the Music Rooms. There were bathrooms along the passage and we were allowed two baths a week.

The matron had a dispensary on the same floor. Up a very steep flight of stairs were some individual rooms for sixth formers and the Clothing Room where we all had shelves where our clean underclothes were kept. There was a gas bracket outside the Clothing Room which burnt all night.

The whole school ate in the Refectory at tables of eight with one senior girl at each table who dished out for the rest. In 1947, when there was still rationing, we had the sugar and butter for the week on the table and it had to last. At mid-morning break we were given cocoa and delicious hot buns, and our letters - which had been opened - were laid out on the benches which lined the passage on the way to the refectory.

Mother Cornelia Connelly had devised a routine for the girls derived from the Jesuit way of life. After recreation, when we went up to bed at 9pm and we were not meant to say another word until after grace at breakfast next morning. Mother Declan stood at the head of the refectory to say grace before breakfast and if you had spoken unnecessarily during the evening, you had to go up and report yourself to her in front of the whole school. There was Mass every day in the Chapel at 7am and if you did not want to go to Mass you had to pull out a knotted string on a board, kept on the landing of the dormitory floor, which had the names of everyone, listed by dormitory. If you were a Child of Mary - a Sodality to which you got elected at the top of the school - you had to be in the Chapel for 15 minutes of meditation before Mass, and you were called by a nun knocking at the end of your bed and saying 'Blessed be the Holy Child Jesus' to which you had to reply 'Now and for ever more Amen'. We all wore white veils to church, kept on the head with elastic. Every afternoon at 5pm there was either Benediction or a visit to church and afterwards we all stood on the stairs or in the passages round

the Grandfather clock and statue of Our Lady to say the Angelus.

Our teachers were almost all nuns. There were a few women lay teachers but hockey was taught by Sister Bruno who used to tuck up her skirts and race up and down the hockey pitch. We had wonderful English teaching from Mother Elizabeth who had been an actress, Maths from Mother Lorenzo who was an architect and sadly built the new buildings, especially the one which ruined the facade of the original school. One member of the class had to wait outside the room for the teacher to arrive, and carry her books for her, and if one passed a nun in the corridor, one did a sort of skip which was a rudimentary curtsey. We were not allowed to read fiction during the week and there was little fiction in the Library. Fiction was kept in a special cupboard. The Headmistress, Mother Declan, was a formidable figure and to be summoned to 'Our Room' (as nuns held everything in common) made one quake. She was very fair and far-seeing and I owe her a very great deal. There was practically no science taught, except for Biology though there was a rudimentary science lab over an out building.

The centre of life in the school was the large School Hall - now I believe the Library. Here we had prayers in the morning if you did not go to Mass. Here we did our preparation, and had films on special days and school entertainments. Here we did all our exams and Mother Declan gave us the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost at Whitsun. Here we darned our stockings on Saturday evenings. Here we made our Altars when we had three day silent Retreats.

All through the school we had Sodalities to which it was an honour to belong. For the youngest there were Angels, for the next level Aloysians, then Aspirants (who wished to be Children Mary,) Enfants de Marie or E de M's for short. Each had a medal on a different coloured ribbon which was worn on Sundays and high days. The E de M's wore their medals on a

“In 1947, when there was still rationing, we had the sugar and butter for the week on the table and it had to last.”

chain all the time and on a fat white ribbon on Sundays. If elected there was a special initiation ceremony with its own prayer book and on 8th December, the Children of Mary got a whole holiday. I still have my medal and the prayer book.

There is so much more I could write about our lives but you may have had enough already. At the end of the term, the whole school sat on the stages by the organ in the Concert Hall and each class was called up to stand in a semicircle in front of Reverend Mother while the exam marks were read out. The girl with the top mark moved to the top of the semi-circle and this continued until some poor girl was at the bottom. At the end of the Summer Term, after some form of entertainment, there was a grand Prize Giving and the prize winners in each class walked down from the stages while Mother Consolata played Chopin on the piano, to collect the prizes, which were books with the Holy Child Logo stamped on the cover.

In the dormitories we had beds with a rail down one side and at the end of the bed. One pulled a curtain along the side of the bed, put the bedcover over the end of the bed, and hung a small curtain in the gap at the end of the bed. On the stand by the bed we each had a china basin and a metal jug in which we fetched hot water from a tap in a bathroom.

After washing, the water was poured into slop buckets in the middle of the room. Hair washing was on Saturday afternoon in a special room. A nun slept in a corner of the biggest dormitories and had a candle or a torch by which to go to bed.

Finally there was no central heating in 1947 and we all had chilblains every winter. It was installed a year or two later and one of the heavy iron radiators fell over and crushed a finger of a girl in my form, before they were connected. We always had to go for walks in threes as it was not considered right that we should only walk with friends.

By 1954 the idea of 'houses' came in but there were no separate buildings and only enamel pins with 'St. Michael' etc on them. But then came the 'amalgamation' and the great changes which mostly happened after I had left.

Emily Bostock (Class of 2015)

I moved to the Isles of Scilly a year ago to work on a privately-owned island called Tresco. It is a popular holiday destination for many people and has selfcatering holiday cottages, as well as a pub to stay in. It is a wonderful, hidden gem off the coast of Cornwall and due to the unique climate, is host to a fabulous garden, growing plants found nowhere else in England.

I work at a two AA Rosette restaurant on the island called ‘The Ruin Beach Café’. I am currently Assistant Manager and I am absolutely loving it here! Hospitality has been hit hard over the last year but the short window we had last summer gave us the chance to welcome back guests, some of whom have been coming here for decades. It's a very special place and I'm proud to be a part of it. The photo below is the view from the restaurant. I can assure you it never gets old!

I am very lucky to have moved here just before the pandemic and to be in a relatively much safer area. My family managed to get here for Christmas which was a privilege many did not have this year and I am very grateful.