The last chapter made me cry. It’s so effective and clever to tell your story interwoven with your fictional Maudie story. What a world the Headmaster’s letter conjures up. The exclamation marks say it all: girls! domestic help so hard to find! It’s good and comforting that you’ve written your fear and loathing of Cruel Matron out of your system. I have to admit I’d like her to have a spectacularly horrible Hollywood ending!
I’ve read all these episodes. They bring back a vast selection of memories. I remember Cruel Matron but I was a day girl so she had very little impact on me. I remember her very short hair! This last episode brings back memories of that particular head, DJ. Rosemary became a close friend of Mum and Dad. Thank you for your comment about the music teachers wife, my Mum.
Thank you, Lesley. Your mum’s legacy to me and so many girls is the opposite of Cruel Matron’s. Btw I also have a nice memory-feeling about your dad. And the music master in front of whom I wet my pants wasn’t your father. It was SP. I’ll never know if he realised I lost bladder control in front of him. He kindly didn’t show it if he did!
The music teachers wife was wonderful, kind, compassionate...a lender of Agatha Christie books and mum to cat 🐈 who visited us and gave us cuddles. Altogether a different atmosphere than cruel matron created. X
The chill is warmed for me by knowing that there were/are sisters in arms, like you. Not that I would wish Cruel Matron’s effects on anyone, but there is comfort in the shared experience.
What a compelling chapter! The letter from the headmaster is incredible. I wonder what our father made of it? Because there is a kind of man-to-man 'you know how these girls can be' and 'you understand what it is to hold high responsibility in an institution with difficult staff' tone to it. It's hard to believe our father would have accepted a tone that was essentially belittling his beloved trusted daughter. And where was Mum in all this? We know she would also have read that letter with her chain-smoking intensity.
Wow, that telling letter from the headteacher, Emma, confirmation that he knew what you knew, full of equivocation and delays, and yes, himself terrified of matron. And you had to close out that year in her presence. Ugh.
It was that generation of parents, wasn't it, always ready to take the teacher's side. Whenever I'd been strapped (often) or hit with a ruler (more often), if I complained to my parents, they would say as one, 'Well you must have deserved it then'. Never questioned that the teacher might, just might, on that occasion, have punished the wrong pupil! I didn't bother to tell them if I was guilty which was about 70% of the time.
Yes, very much that generation, Sue. I hate to think of you and so many children of our generation receiving painful physical rebukes and punishments. But in my parents’ case, they weren’t clip round the ear type parents. But the question is … would that have been better than the gnawing grief of homesickness and the cruelty of Cruel Matron? Probably.
That letter encapsulates all the denial and cruel indifference to children's suffering that enabled so much abuse to continue for decades. Heartbreaking.
Yes, well put, Anna, it does, but what is so interesting is that the headmaster himself was a nice man. I don’t remember anything unpleasant or fearful about him.
That’s exactly what I was thinking all through reading it. The music teachers wife was sooo lovely. Was the headmaster DJ ? He was lovely. Don’t think it can have been TS..
The last chapter made me cry. It’s so effective and clever to tell your story interwoven with your fictional Maudie story. What a world the Headmaster’s letter conjures up. The exclamation marks say it all: girls! domestic help so hard to find! It’s good and comforting that you’ve written your fear and loathing of Cruel Matron out of your system. I have to admit I’d like her to have a spectacularly horrible Hollywood ending!
Thank you, Helen. There’s nothing like writing for unclogging the drains!
I’ve read all these episodes. They bring back a vast selection of memories. I remember Cruel Matron but I was a day girl so she had very little impact on me. I remember her very short hair! This last episode brings back memories of that particular head, DJ. Rosemary became a close friend of Mum and Dad. Thank you for your comment about the music teachers wife, my Mum.
Thank you, Lesley. Your mum’s legacy to me and so many girls is the opposite of Cruel Matron’s. Btw I also have a nice memory-feeling about your dad. And the music master in front of whom I wet my pants wasn’t your father. It was SP. I’ll never know if he realised I lost bladder control in front of him. He kindly didn’t show it if he did!
The music teachers wife was wonderful, kind, compassionate...a lender of Agatha Christie books and mum to cat 🐈 who visited us and gave us cuddles. Altogether a different atmosphere than cruel matron created. X
I found this episode utterly chilling.
You are generous with your forgiveness of the deeply dysfunctional Matron but I am glad you find it more difficult to forgive the system.
The chill is warmed for me by knowing that there were/are sisters in arms, like you. Not that I would wish Cruel Matron’s effects on anyone, but there is comfort in the shared experience.
What a compelling chapter! The letter from the headmaster is incredible. I wonder what our father made of it? Because there is a kind of man-to-man 'you know how these girls can be' and 'you understand what it is to hold high responsibility in an institution with difficult staff' tone to it. It's hard to believe our father would have accepted a tone that was essentially belittling his beloved trusted daughter. And where was Mum in all this? We know she would also have read that letter with her chain-smoking intensity.
You read my mind, beloved sister.
Wow, that telling letter from the headteacher, Emma, confirmation that he knew what you knew, full of equivocation and delays, and yes, himself terrified of matron. And you had to close out that year in her presence. Ugh.
Yes, equivocation is a good word for it, Wendy. Thank you.
It was that generation of parents, wasn't it, always ready to take the teacher's side. Whenever I'd been strapped (often) or hit with a ruler (more often), if I complained to my parents, they would say as one, 'Well you must have deserved it then'. Never questioned that the teacher might, just might, on that occasion, have punished the wrong pupil! I didn't bother to tell them if I was guilty which was about 70% of the time.
Yes, very much that generation, Sue. I hate to think of you and so many children of our generation receiving painful physical rebukes and punishments. But in my parents’ case, they weren’t clip round the ear type parents. But the question is … would that have been better than the gnawing grief of homesickness and the cruelty of Cruel Matron? Probably.
Btw I really enjoy the audio versions.
Oh thank you! I love doing them. Courtesy of patient Patrick, my sound designer son.
That letter encapsulates all the denial and cruel indifference to children's suffering that enabled so much abuse to continue for decades. Heartbreaking.
Yes, well put, Anna, it does, but what is so interesting is that the headmaster himself was a nice man. I don’t remember anything unpleasant or fearful about him.
I thank goodness that she had gone before I arrived in 1968...
I’m glad you missed out on her, Angie.
Mind you, we did have a strange one, after the music teacher's wife…
That’s exactly what I was thinking all through reading it. The music teachers wife was sooo lovely. Was the headmaster DJ ? He was lovely. Don’t think it can have been TS..