Morning Mirror Edition 148 - 31/7/2005




In this edition

Smalls



THE BROEKIE BRIGADE



It only becomes obvious when the little girls come home for the summer holidays.....

The rest of the year I am secure in the belief that a) There is something wrong with my mirror and b) that my clothes shrink in the wash AND C) that we have strong moral values in our home !!

But when the Little Girls come home - the TRUTH EMERGES !!

It is the festooning of the bathroom that really gets to me. Our staunch Catholic family traditions are being horribly eroded by our underwear.

I can cope with the shoes sizes, we are all identical - a perfect English Size 4. I can cope with the bra sizes, we are all virtually identical apart from a few gravity problems and under-wiring needed in the matriarch, but the broekies in the bathroom make me want to rush off to confession - literally....

Now most Zimbabwean mothers from the olden days were known to give broekie washing lessons to their offspring and at age three, my Little Girls were to be found perched on the wee little stool that grandpa made, leaning over the basin carefully washing their broekies every evening before bath-time.

These days I am pretty sure the little darlings toss theirs into the washing machine and tumble dryer when they are away from Mother's eagle eye, but they dutifully wash them at home and hence the festoonation of the bathroom which makes father duck and cluck and makes me cringe.

The reason being those awful things called "thongs" !!

Now in my day - a broekie was a broekie.

Good quality cotton was imperative, anything else was unhygienic, and of course , they always had to keep the kidneys warm to ward off the common cold !!

Now, I ask you, what good does a thong do medically, physically, and mentally ?

Mother would always insist that our underwear was in pristine condition "just in case we got knocked down by a car". Any errant piece of lace (modest in size and of course beige or white ONLY ) was immediately and carefully hand stitched.

And trust me those bloomers lasted an awful long time so we probably only had a few pairs.

Nowadays thanks to Victoria's secret, the Little Girls' broekie drawers are overflowing, mind you they are so minuscular (the broekies I mean) you could probably get a hundred of them into the family chest of drawers that used to take half a dozen. !!

In my day there was etiquette in a pair of knickers - our revered headmistress (we were at an all girls' school) would insist on impromptu broekie inspection, and woe betide anyone who was wearing anything but the regulation wooly brown pantaloon that took a full yard of fabric to make. Anyone found in something a little more risqué was branded as a strumpet and outcast for days on end !!

Now being of the old school, I have always been of the beige, cotton, full-cut broekie set...... But my strumpet daughters wear ( blush) all manner of unladylike undergarments. All induced by the High Priestess of the Pert Bottom - Kylie Mynogue no doubt !!

Unmentionables like tangas, g strings, thongs in all sorts of garish colours like red and lime and even (shudder) black !! Festooned with slogans and even shriek (lace that is not beige )!!

What is the world coming too I shudder to think.......


CONDOLENCES

With Deepest Sympathy to the families of the following




SYMPATHY MESSAGES


CONDOLENCES

Elaine Meadon-Kendrick: from all those pupils who went through her patient, expert remedial care. She will always be remembered with love, admiration, and thanks. MHDSRIP. The Slooten family, Napier,NZ .

Elaine Meaden Kendrick.
A woman who transformed the lives of the young. Elaine was not an easy person to work with! Few saints ever are One of the problems of the modern world is the perception of the saintly life which is seen through a lens which paints pictures of pretty holy men and women of God in lurid technicolour. The kitchy and wimpish portraits on cards sold by the millions in the Christian world. Real saints are very different people .....they are tough, rugged, ruthless and single minded. They have pledged themselves to a mission in this world by using their God given talents to reach a glorious eternity in the next. Elaine was one of this remarkable and dedicated band. The rule which governed her life is set out clearly in the Gospel of Matthew 18.1-14 and 25. 31-46. Read The Book for the insight that it gives into the working of her soul. But verses like this sum things up, "I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to the least of my brothers of mine , you did it to me." And, " See that you never dispise any of these little ones , for I tell you that their angels in Heaven are continually in the presence of my Father...". And again, " It is never the will of your Father that any one of these little ones should be lost."
Yes Elaine was the shepherdess who would go out always to rescue that one lost sheep. The child lost in the educational wilderness of dyslexia, attention deficit and hyyperactivity. Back in the flock the wounds from loss of self esteem she treated and healed and young people became whole again. But woe betide anyone who obstructed the rescue mission. She fell on them like a panther from a tree and visited on the callous and the uncaring a mauling that few would forget.
I saw Elaine from two perspectives, as a professional colleague and as a client parent. That is how this portrait comes to you and it does not pretend in any way to be a history of her life. Like her brother George she was first and foremost a language expert and her deep insights into the working of the English Language gave her the skills to remedy the numerous impairments found amongst the young and their effective use of the medium. The manufacture of new apparatus, as she called it, to deal with newly diagnosed dysfunctions was an on-going process and one to which she brought astounding creativity. Her armoury was made up of cupboard upon cupboard of apparatus. If a weapon did not exist to combat a problem she invented one.
I brought my son to her for healing. His dyslexia, under achievement and lack of self esteem had brought him to crisis point. She healed him and made him whole and able to realise his own potential and use his talents. Today he is a surgeon Her round room at Palmer House today brings to mind something out of Harry Potter and Hogwarts. The ever present music, her familiars be they dogs ...in the early years Prudy the mastiff and later the sleek and somnolent cats, the old world trinkets and ornaments and the many cupboards filled with fascinating boxes
There was something very Franciscan about the passions of her life. There was always music but nothing to immediately appeal to and distract her young clients. The last thing that she would ever do would be to condescend. One heard more often than not iBach or Mozart or her great favourite Mahler. There were always animals and during her last years at the College her many pampered stray cats. The adopted were forcibly and swiftly neutered because celibacy was the rule of the house. For their sacrifice they were rewarded with endless saucers of milk and kapenta. At one stage she took the crow population of Bulawayo under her wing so to speak. Her early morning feedings filled the skies with black wings and raucous caws. Palmer House was threatened with burial under guano. Peter Mundy rescued the College and gave her a serious talk about the filthy diseases of her new friends and if she did not desist in her work of avian mercy her would bring in a vermin control office with a shot gun to avert a potential plague. The crows left soon after and Elaine sulked for a short while.
She was a great plantswoman and had a wonderful horticultural collection at home which she generously shared with the College and lovely things would appear in the beds outside her door. These were the things which made her so very special but I do not mourn now but give great praise to Him who made her.. I rejoice that now she is a free spirit again...freed from the cold and cruel prison of Alzheimers.
Ian McCausland.






ALEX NISBET
Passed away midnight July 23/24, 2005.
Alex was a great gentleman, wonderful friend, genuine golfer etc - a man of many facets! He was "my favourite toy-boy" - but all the ladies wanted him as their favourite too! So, I became "senior chooser for toyboy" and we giggled like schoolgirls over the choosing. Alex was always "boy-of- honour" at all our girls/ladies evenings amidst much hilarity, fun and friendship. But, would sometimes 'put me in my place or tell me off , too'. He was one of Pete's best friends - a man to confide in, talk cuq to, laugh together or just share space with. And, of course - watch, talk and play golf! He lived with us for some time and was much adored by our dogs and cats, tho not always with his approval. My Mum loved challenging him at Scrabble and they both enjoyed awful "skit & donner" movies with much delight whilst my Dad enjoyed many conversations with him about their younger days in the insurance business in various places. Daughter, Rach, had already submitted her application to adopt him as a future toy-boy and son, Shon & his future wife & family had invited him to Ireland as had my family to Wales!Alex enjoyed most sports - if only the social side or watching on TV sometimes - but especially golf. With a long and very honourable history of office-bearing at numerous (and some very elite) clubs in various places over the years, he continued to support golf locally and particularly at his home-club, Hornung Park, even after he could no longer play.Above all, Alex was a much beloved father and grandfather. He was "gramps" to a couple of generations and friend to many. Far from perfect - thank heavens; that's why he'll remain so very special to so many people!
FRIDAY 29/7 - KARIBA : A family service will be held at Alex's favourite spot on the veranda at the Nisbet Home.

A memorial will be held at Horning Park on Sunday 7th August. Further details in Morning Mirror and at Hornung Park Club. (Pete & Ro Harrison. Tel. 242685/091 301013)

Please would you be so kind as to place a notice in the Morning Mirror for us under condolences for MRS BERYL MUNRO passed away peacefully on the 31st July, 2005.
May her dear soul rest in peace.

RAY AND LOUISE

It is with the deepest sympathy that the Nisbet family advise of the passing of Alexander Nisbet on Sunday 24 July 2005. You will be greatly missed both as a father and a grandfather. Rest in peace Gramps.


TIDBITS


TIDBITS

"Courage is the finest of human qualities because it guarantees all the others."

- Winston Churchill -


He didn't like the casserole
And he didn't like my cake.
My biscuits were too hard...
Not like his mother used to make.
I didn't perk the coffee right
He didn't like the stew,
I didn't mend his socks
The way his mother used to do.
I pondered for an answer
I was looking for a clue.
Then I turned around and smacked him...
Like his Mother used to do.





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