School Daze: Killarney Rotary Club president Anne Alcock's memories of Durban delights

Anne Alcock pictured in her garden. She is the president of the Killarney Rotarty Club.Pic; Larry Cummins

MY MOST vivid memory of my primary school days in Durban, South Africa, is of standing on a wobbly wooden bench in “the babies playground” and “selling” lumps of my home-made toffee, wrapped in waxed-paper knots, to other small girls and boys, until a teacher came along and confiscated both my gains, and my toffee stock!

When I was seven we were to have a “visitor” to our religion class. This visitor was to be the “reverend mother”. She came in, quiet and very tall. I had a really important question to ask. Somehow, it was possible for me to go up the room and ask my question, face to face (well, face to waist). I said, “Where is my soul?” She didn’t laugh, she didn’t dismiss the question or me, nor try and give a long, clever answer. She just stayed still and peaceful. Then just for a second, she bent and touched my forehead with a finger. “I think it’s there,” she said. Although I was so small, I remember feeling totally respected and heard, and satisfactorily answered on a mutual conviction.