My Dear Children…
Story appeared in the 2016 issue of QMS Connections Magazine.
BY LEANNE SCHULTZ, OPERATIONS & HR MANAGER
ALUMNI TRUDY BYERS (CONIBEAR, ’56)
In April 1949, my sister and I were deposited at Queen Margaret’s School in Duncan, keeping us thankfully together after a series of foster homes. I thought the School was another place for homeless children.
Miss Denny could never say no to anyone, from war children sent from overseas to the safety of the Cowichan Valley to children from struggling families like ours. There was always room for more. Those of us who could not go home for school breaks were well cared for, either at the School, parcelled out to friends with kindly parent(s), or in a house by the ocean rented by Miss Denny and Miss Geoghegan to give us the experience of a vacation. Being at School was fine with me—I could read my way through the library!
When my family began to come back together in Victoria in the mid-’50s, I was torn between desperately wanting to be with my family, and wanting to be at School with my friends. I did stay at QMS, and am most grateful that it was possible. I learned later from my sister that our father continued paying our bill long after I had graduated.
Since graduation in 1956, life has been busy with an interesting job in the UVic Library (until retirement), and with my daughter and extended family (including a great-great-grand-niece). I have been very involved with the QMS Alumni, having served on the OOMA Board of Directors every decade since 1965, and consecutively since 1997. I have also had the privilege of editing the reprint of Beyond All Dreams (2006) and the Alumni newsletter, The Link, since 2010.
I know that it is still often difficult for parents to keep their children at QMS. Miss Denny often stressed in her Speech Day addresses that “progress through school life, with increasing responsibility and leader-ship roles, provided the full benefit of QMS.” And I feel strongly that pro-viding families with assistance for their children to stay at QMS is para-mount to attaining the true value of a QMS education.
There are buzzwords like “pay it forward” and “give back,” but I have never thought in those terms. To me QMS is truly a family, and I know from experience that a family helps each other. I still feel the presence of Miss Denny and Miss Geoghegan across the years, and always in my mind resonate Miss Denny’s words on Speech Day and in her annual letter to Old Girls: “My Dear Children…”
“Our School thrives because of the diversity of our students. When we can admit children with a wide range of interests, backgrounds and talents, we are so much better for it. We try hard to remove most aspects of socio-economic status within our community so that all of our students are equally empowered to realize their potential. Each student and their family enriches our school community in so many ways. We are a stronger school when
we are able to explore and celebrate our differences.”