Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 15 text:

With grateful hearts, we give our thanks to you For help and guidance, in each time of need. For the example, in both word and deed We girls have tried to follow, old and new. When we have failed, your words have given us heart To strive a little harder, the next time Whatever heights, that we have tried to climb You ' ve shown us how to choose the better part. And through the years, your influence will not die But be a blessing to us every one We will not fail to keep the standard high Of life , and games, and work we know well done. For all the blessings you have brought our way Your grateful children give you thanks today. [13]

Page 14 text:

MISS JANET L. GUMMING Principal of Trafalgar School 1917-1940 [12]

Page 16 text:

y4l o6e to tke dll I L lI I wm . . . . From the Head Girl of the School As we go through life, we meet few people who command both our wholehearted love and our sincere admiration and respect. These few must have a profound effect on our lives, particularly if they help to form our characters, as Miss Gumming has for many years. Many of us have been taught by her, but all of us see her every morning in the Hall when we come up for Prayers. Every day, for twenty-three years, Traf girls have said Good morning. Miss Gumming to the white-haired figure in the centre of the platform. But next year we will not hear her quiet cheerful voice leading the prayer. That office which Miss Gumming has made peculiarly her own, will be fulfilled by another. It will be someone else to whom we take our notes, after an absence. We will miss her half- anxious Are you sure you are feeling quite well now? All these little familiar things have endeared her to us. But they are only the outward form of something, we sense so vaguely, that we can express it but clumsily. It is the feeling of a huge spirit, living in a little body, and look- ing out of her eyes. Beside her courage and tactful honesty, we feel a kind of serenity and benignity which make her slightest order promptly obeyed; not through fear of punishment, but lest we will endanger her good opinion of us. Miss Gumming has an amazing memory, for at the end of term, as she sees each girl, she makes an accurate and kindly comment about her work. It gives one a little impetus to try harder, to feel thus noticed. It is these seemingly insignificant things which make us feel that though she be replaced. Miss Gumming ' s niche will not be filled for many years. It has been dug with infinite love and patience in the soil of our hearts. I can not pay a fitting tribute but can only grope to express my feeling of grate- fulness for having gone through Traf under Miss Gumming. Those of us who will not return next year, will miss her as much as any, because, when we came back to look around Miss Gumming will not be there to welcome us. I can only say to you Miss Gumming, If our wishes for your future are fulfilled, you will be happy. L. B. From a Mother of a Present Girl IF one may pharaphrase St. Paul, when one is a child, one thinks as a child and speaks as a child, but when one becomes a parent, then, indeed, one needs must put away childish things. And it is as a parent that I write now of Miss Gumming, in her capacity of Head- mistress. I knew her first many years ago, when, in another school, she guided my mind [14]