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Bahamian Granny does Convocation - Sat Oct 08, 2005

Last night was convocation night at the local high school. The students who graduated last June came home to be with their former high school classmates one last time. Even though my youngest daughter is away at university, she came home, and she received a few awards that warmed the cockles of my heart.

Many of you on the forum have either known, communicated and/or have some association with my sometimes boss, business colleague and best friend Ken. Every year we get together and throw in some money and award cash prizes and small plaques to graduating students who excel in our chosen field of science, math, and computer geek stuff. It een much, but I'm sure that an extra couple of hundred bucks here or a laptop there really helps out kids in university. And in this country, its a tax write-off for us.

The way it works, is that we named the awards after one of our mentors, and on convocation night, we get to present the awards to the deserving students, who are picked by the teachers according to the criteria that we set up (ie has to really need the money and come from a poorer family etc, and has the marks to prove that they are serious).

Mum has never in her life been to a convocation of her own at any time. I believe that she has maybe Grade 10, if that. She is a proud woman, and questioning her closely about it would make her uncomfortable. It was just her and her sister back home in Freeport, and their mother couldn't work for medical reasons, so they had to go to work at a young age to support themselves and their sickly mother.

This year, we thought that it would be a blast if we let Mum and Miss Knowlton (our country neighbour and Mum's best friend here in Canada) do the honours of presenting our awards. That way we wouldn't have to gussy up and grease down in a suit and tie. The ladies were thrilled.

Mum and Miss Knowlton, being presenters, were seated right up front. The convocation began with the school band playing a processional march. It was a stirring march that sounded a bit like "We are the champions" and the whole faculty preceeded the students. They were all in cap and gown as well, and the faculty proudly wore their own graduation sashes from their university alma maters.

Mum was unaware of the cap-and-gown sash thing. It is like the jockey colours of a racing stable, except that it applies to the university that you went to, like the school colours. The sash is usually worn tight around the neck in front and it billows down across your back in flowing folds. Some are thin bands of silk -- austere and some are the size of a Catholic priest's vestments. Some are simple stripes and others have rudimentary heraldry devices emblazoned on them. Nowadays you have to buy them from the university, but in my day they gave them away with that piece of vellum called a diploma.

Mum was blown away by the pageantry, but was fixated by the panoply of colourful sashes. She herself was a bit over-dressed for the occasion, but it was tastefully done, and it is not my place to correct her fashion. Being from the Indies, she still has a penchant for choosing bold and striking pastels in her fashion ensemble, and of course, the hats by Frank Lloyd Wright are de-rigueur for any Bahamian matron. In this colder autumnal climes, the women fashion tends towards darker colours in the wardrobe.

When the time came, Miss Knowlton presented the plaques, and Mum presented the envelopes with the cash and souvenir letters in them. The band missed a few notes and became shakier as time wore on, but no one noticed. After an interminably long time, the ceremonies were over. Mum and Miss Knowlton were talking to the principal of the school.

On the ride home, Mum was effusive. She was positively beaming and in an extremely good mood. I thought that it was because Ken and I let them present the awards. I must admit that it was nothing of the sort at all.

When we got home, Miss Knowlton came in and Mum put on a pot of tea. She brought out the butter cookies and then Mum revealed her conversation with principal of the highschool. As it turns out, my seventy-some year old mother is going to sign up at the university in the city for some courses. The principal is going to help her with her application as a 'mature' student.

Mum's rationale was that she missed too much in life and now wanted to catch up. It has nothing to do with education and learning. It has nothing to do with expanding the mind. It has nothing to do with intellectual development. It is plain and simple. She wants one of those graduation sashes to hang up around her neck. As I was going to bed, she had the ironing board out in the kitchen. As she hummed the spiritual hymn "What a friend we have in Jesus", she was gently steaming the wrinkles out of a couple of my graduation sashes that she found crumpled up in the storage closet.

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