This memory is a very sad memory. It happened about a year ago. Our teacher was called Miss Stammers and she was very ill with breast cancer, she had already had one cardiac arrest but she was still alive.
I was at home and Laura Skuse was over at my house to play. We had just had lunch when the telephone rang. It was a serious-sounding man. He asked me for my mum and I ran and got her, then I went into the lounge to play with Laura.
About five minutes later, Mum put the phone down. Slowly and sadly she walked into the room where we were playing. “Miss Stammers is dead,” she said, half in a whisper. We were quiet and we felt cold but we carried on playing.
It was about one week later when I finally took it in. I cried my first tears; they were not my last. Our lovely, sweet, jolly, caring teacher was gone.
So whenever someone says the words Miss Stammers, I remember this memory. I still cry now and again. I keep a photo of her in my bedroom.
I wish this memory was all a dream. But Miss Stammers will always be a big part of Shebbear School and of our hearts.
* Pam Stammers, deputy head of Shebbear Primary School, Torrington, Devon died in September l994. Previously she was a teacher at St Joseph the Worker in Shenfield, Essex.
Josey Pickering, aged 11, wrote this piece last term at her secondary school after a discussion about memories.
Questions for Joan Sallis should be sent to Agenda, The TES, Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY. Fax: 0171-782 3200.
e-mail: letters@tes1.demon.co.uk
