Wednesday, April 5, 2017
In September of 1946 I was introduced to "Miss Stackhouse" on my first day at South Bay school. I was five and excited to be going to school. She was 19, and this was her first teaching assignment. I was captivated and when she left South Bay the next year, at the end of grade two, my world came to an end. I cannot recount the many "firsts" I experienced under her guidance, but she was certainly responsible for instilling my life-long love of books with her gift of The House at Pooh Corner at the end of grade one. Life moved on, but I often thought of her. In January of 1965, while visiting my parents after two years abroad, I worked briefly in the office at Barnhill Memorial. On my first day, the principal asked me to take a grade four class as their teacher had had an accident over the holidays. It was Muriel's class and it was clear to me that these children felt about her as I had. During my term at Barnhill, we shared many lunch hours and knowing her as an adult was as delightful as I remembered. I left Saint John at the end of the school year and very much regret that we did not keep in touch. I am especially sorry that I did not know she was in Ottawa. Please know that my thoughts are with her family today.
