February 12 2015 was the day that left me totally overwhelmed with happy memories. For 35 years, I have been trying to locate my favourite history teacher, Mrs Dorothy Ee, but was in vain. Then some old Cochraneans started a FB page for the ex-students and as we communicated, we gradually narrowed our discussions to this particular teacher. I am the only member from the 60s period in the group while the rest are from the 70s.
An effort was made and after two and a half months of search, I finally managed to locate her at a nursing home, My Father's Place, in Damansara Perdana. This information was quickly fed to the group and I could feel the air of excitement exuded from the members.
Finally, that morning I drove to visit her and on the way, I kept thinking what am I supposed to say when I meet her.
As I entered the home and there she was seated in the deck chair in the living room looking quite frail and feeble. She didn't talk much but that didn't deter me in carrying out a monologue with her. However, she gradually came round to me.
It was their lunch break and she was spoon fed by a Filipino helper. It was just plain kway teow soup with minced meat.
I spent one hour and fifteen minutes with her with me doing all the talking and she doing all the nodding. I was hoping that I won't bore her to death with all my yakkety yak. In between, she chipped in with a couple of quips in English and Cantonese.
As I left the home, I felt so much of sadness knowing that a once robust human being with so much drive and who taught us History in Form 4 & 5, and General Paper in Form Six is now reduced to a frail human being. She was a disciplinarian but we knew deep inside, she had a soft spot for some of us that even long after we have left school, she still kept in touch with us.
After her tenure with Cochrane ended, she assumed her new post as the headmistress of Pudu English Girls School.
