In Memoriam: Judy at intermediate School

Catherine, Olwyn, Mary and Judy

 

When Judy was old enough for Intermediate School, the Education Department was kind enough to open a new school, Takapuna Normal Intermediate, just along the road.

Judy did very well at this brand new school. She turned out to be very helpful to the teachers, so much so that they asked her to mentor one of the difficult boys in the class. Judy took him in hand, restrained him, helped him with his learning, and had a generally positive effect, much to the teacher (Miss Buchanan)'s delight.

Judy was always a very sociable girl, taking a great interest in her friends, and in her cousins. She was a leader among the other children, as we have seen, and would have made a great teacher.

Here she is holding her baby cousin, Philip, with Terry and cousin Andrew. They are at Grandma Gaze's flat in Epsom.



Here they are when Judy was in Form 2 (Year 8).

She used to play netball on Saturdays, at the courts at Northcote Road by the motorway bridge. We would go and watch her after we had been to Terry's soccer game.

Like all pupils at that level, Judy was introduced to craft work, what we called Manual Training when I was at school, except that now the girls did woodwork and the boys did cooking as well.

Judy made a set of wooden spoons and a rack for them which she proudly gave me at my birthday that year.

I still have the flat-ended spoon, which I use every morning to stir the porridge, and when we have rice, it is in use again to stir the rice.

Here it is a morning or two ago:

The rack, too, is still in use in our garage to hold the garden tools neatly on the wall.

It is great, after all this time, to have these items that remind us gently every day of the young lady who meant so much to all of us in the family then.