So who is she? Well, to me, she was a smoke-puffing, eye-wincing, draconic, old goat! Ahem, I mean boarding school housemistress. With her white hair, withered and tanned skin, she would patrol the corridors with a gait so intense it could put the fear of God in anyone. My portrait of her is smeared with bias and ought to be taken with a pinch of salt but I was only seven when she reigned – I suppose she would've been around 70. She was a stern lady of principles but these were her main:
1. No cursing
2. Always keep a neat bed.
On the first point, the other students and I did OK, but I don’t think there we many who met her standards when it came to bed making. She treated this like an art and would pull the sheets off the bed and make you make the bed again and again if your efforts were unsatisfactory. Even if it meant you were late for class!
On initiation, she would demonstrate the art to a new student herself with elegance and pride. Tucking and smoothing the bottom sheet under the mattress, before making immaculate hospital corners with the bottom corners of the top sheet. Then, she’d spread the blanket over the bed and secure it with hospital corners. She’d relish folding the top sheet over the blanket, pull the bedspread over the bed before fluffing up the pillows and spreading them on her masterpiece. As a new student, one of the prefects would oversee the process for a couple of days, beyond that point you were on your own.
So I have to be honest, I despised that scrupulous woman. She made my life a living hell, even at seven. She died within a couple years of being at the school but I’ll never forget her. Overtime, I have come to appreciate she was my first real initiation into the “real” world. I remember her fondly because she taught me a valuable lesson: you need to be tough through life. People like her challenge your fortitude and ability carry yourself with dignity and grace. As Les Brown once said, “If you do what is easy your life will be hard, if you do what is hard, your life will be easy”. Who is your Mrs. Greaves?
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