Bittersweet Endings

It's been quite a week. My girls' dance career has come to an end and I finished my Horticulture Course on Friday. In both cases my feelings are bittersweet.


I will be posting some pics of the girls' concert in coming days but all I will say about it at this point is that it was a great success and I am a very proud mum.


For now I want to talk about the end of my time back in the world of education and colourful people. And what a ride it has been.


I have thoroughly enjoyed my time back in the class room and I have learned a great deal, not just about horticulture but about people and how the other half live. I think I enjoyed the latter in equal measure to the former. There is one person who is responsible for a lot of the fun I've had and that's my little spitfire friend Maureen (in the pic below).

What on earth does one say about someone like Maureen? One thing I will say and it's probably the only thing that really counts is that Maureen is my friend and has made the last 6 months a very happy experience. We are like chalk and cheese and an endless source of fascination for a lot of people who just couldn't understand how she and I could possibly connect when we are so different.


I'd say that has as much to do with people's false impression of both of us and their lack of insight as much as anything else, but it is true that we are polar opposites.


It has to be said that Maureen is a colourful character and uses language that would make a sailor blush. She is loud, brash and can be quick to fire up. It is also true that she wore very thin with a lot of the other students but I saw things in her that no-one else took the time to notice.

One of my classes with teacher in the middle (no crims in this one)

I was very quiet compared to most of my classmates and many of them thought I was a real lady which in comparison to the masses I probably was. Don't get me wrong, I'm no angel, not by a long shot. I can swear with the best of them but I think there is a time and a place and most of my cursing is done when I am very angry or passionate about a wrong or an injustice. Most of my class just swore as a part of natural conversation, Maureen being the worst offender.


Still....we got on like a house on fire and laughed and laughed all day long.

Our grape vines are starting to bear fruit

Where they all saw someone who was as rough as guts I saw a woman who is still floundering from her husband's death 3 years ago. They would have been married 40 years this month and she really misses him. She would never say that of course because she likes people to think she is tough but I saw it. I heard it every time she related a story about him which was often. I don't think Maureen really knows who she is now but she's starting to find out and it's a wonderful thing to see unfold.


She is 60 years old and dropped out of school when she was 13. It was a case of jumping before she was pushed as being expelled was always on the cards. She came back to school in an effort to learn something and make something of herself. How courageous is that? The sad thing is that all her kids laughed at her and said she would never last. Well she showed them. She not only passed with flying colours, she has also won an award as Best student in one of our classes. I am so proud of her.

Part of our veggie/herb garden

She has mastered the art of using the internet when six months ago you may recall I had to show her how to use a computer. It was because of her that I realised what I really want to do and that is what I will be pursuing next year.


She is the hardest working person I have ever known and I'm talking about physically here as well as academically. She was always the one doing the hard yakka when a lot of the younger ones were standing back and trying to do as little as possible. She had no patience with that kind of carry on and would tell them in no uncertain terms to get off their arses and do some work. Oh yes, she rubbed a few people the wrong way but she was just saying what a lot of people were thinking.


The biggest revelation though was how she treated me when I had my relapse half way through the course. She had always had no sympathy with people who showed weakness of any kind or at least that was the line she drew in the sand for those who didn't care to look deeper. I saw a different side to her. Maureen was very caring towards me and was always on my case to take things a bit easier. She often tried to do my share of the hard work in her usual brash manner but I knew she genuinely cared about me and my welfare. She knew I was mortified at times at being given special treatment and so she would do it in a way that left me with some dignity.

Some of our fruit trees

A week or so ago I was feeling really unwell and she could see it. Without my knowledge she went to see our teacher we had for the afternoon lesson to see if we were doing anything important that day. When the teacher asked why she wanted to know, she told her she thought I should go home but she didn't want me worrying that I would miss out on something I would find hard to catch up with. She came back and told me that she had arranged for me to go home at lunch time because she could see I was ill and not to worry about our next lesson because we weren't doing much anyway. I could have kissed her but she wouldn't have wanted me to do that in public but I did give her a hug. She was chuffed, I could see it, but she waved me off as though it was nothing.


Well it wasn't nothing. It showed me the measure of her heart and who she really is deep down which is something no-one else cared to see.


It always amazes me how often people take others on face value. We all put up a facade of some kind and most people are too lazy, too self absorbed or too uncaring to see beneath it.


I have always befriended unpopular people because more often than not, there is a reason they are who they pretend to be. If you scratch the surface you will often find that there is a deep well of humanity underneath and I have been blessed to know a great many worthwhile people who others have brushed off as unworthy of their friendship.


I love my friend Maureen and she has made my time at school a happy, rewarding experience. I hope we share many more laughs together in the future. I'm sure we will. I miss her already.