We all grumble about things that our parents and teachers didn’t do or say – some are more puzzling than others. This piece would probably qualify as “True Flash”, as it is based on a personal memory, but the context and names have been changed.
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ROLE MODEL
Daria was pleased that her next client was Debs, an eccentric old lady, but one who posed few challenges. Today she wanted to sort out her bookshelf. Easy!
“Come on, Debs,” Daria said with her usual jolliness. “How shall we sort these books?” At random, she pulled one from the top shelf. An old Latin dictionary. “Oh, Debs! This was a school prize. The Margaret Campbell prize. Who was she?”
Debs looked wistfully at the book. “If only I had known who she was when I was trying to be a bad girl, rebelling against uniform rules. Then, she was just a silhouette on a certificate. It was forty years later that I found out about her. There was a talk on her centenary. The woman who was the flat, black head on the certificates was a pioneer. Learning based on encouragement. Sport and languages for clerks’ and shopkeepers’ daughters! How innovative! She campaigned for votes for women. How daring! She should have been our first history lesson; our first assembly. A special woman founded this school, girls. Emulate her! And Daria, the greatest thing about her was the mystery after her death. She was penniless. Some think that she had paid fees for girls that could not pay because of the Great War.”
Daria was baffled. “What a teacher! But why didn’t they tell you about her?”
Debs shrugged. “In my schooldays, maybe being Margaret Campbell was not what they wanted young ladies to do.”
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This piece was first published in 2024 in FLACK, a publication from Marlow Writers’ Society.
