At age fifty-eight, when most people are eagerly looking towards retirement, Mona Kathleen Georges, was ready to start her own school. She resigned as the highly respected principal of Bishop Anstey Junior School in St Ann's and persuaded Enid Thornhill to join forces with her to start St Gabriel's Private School on Dundonald Street.
Two things have always remained with me in the 34 years I have known this very strong woman. Her innate kindness when she decided that once she was accepting my four year old into BAJS , she would have to accept the six year old sister, although it was not usual to take children in that age group: "How can I separate them" she asked.
And her practical thinking when my eldest did not get her school of choice in the first try at the Common Entrance exam. Mrs Georges' advice was "let her re-sit, any child who does not pass in their first try is not yet ready to cope with High School. She has a good command of the English language and will pass next time." How right she was. I have myself passed these words of wisdom on to many parents since then.
Mona K Georges, founding principal, chairman and managing director of St Gabriel's, was cremated last Saturday morning after a funeral service at All Saints Anglican Church, celebrated by the Right Reverend Clive Abdulah, Retired Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago.
This truly Caribbean woman, who was born eighty-five years ago in St John's Antigua, and lived in the British Virgin Islands, Guyana and finally Trinidad, had been an educator from the year that she repeated the School Certificate examination in an effort to obtain the sole Leeward Islands scholarship which she narrowly missed in her first attempt at the exam. During that repeat year, she assisted in teaching the lower forms at the Antigua Girls High School and the Antigua Boys Grammar School.
After leaving school, "Jackie" Nanton spent two years in teacher training and embarked on a teaching career which went into her late seventies, despite the fact that her health had started to decline. At age fourteen, she had fallen in love with Reginald Georges, a Virgin Islander who was an athlete and captain of the rowing team of the Antigua Boys Grammar School. They later became engaged, but his medical studies in Edinburgh and World War Ii combined to delay their marriage, so that another fourteen years elapsed before their wedding in 1943.
In the meantime, however, Jackie Nanton taught first at the T.O.R. Memorial High School and later at the Antigua Boys Grammar School. Soon after her marriage, Dr Georges was transferred to the BVI where the first of her three children was born. A staunch and devoted Anglican, she became an important member of St George's Church, while her community service involved teaching the less fortunate youngsters who were unable to travel to Antigua for secondary education.
Later, she accompanied her husband to Guyana where he worked for seven years in the Government medical services in Georgetown, Bartica and Suddie, during which period she gave birth to her second son and daughter. Teaching was set aside as Mona Georges concentrated on raising her young children, devoting a great deal of time to St George's Cathedral, and then in assisting her husband in the financial management of his private practice when he resigned from the public service. And when Dr Georges later opened a small private hospital, she was there providing all the support and assistance in the ancillary services required.
Just as 14 years elapsed between Jackie's falling in love and marrying Dr Georges, in another 14 years, at age 42, she found herself a widow with three young children, at his sudden death. She resumed her teaching career, at St Gabriel's School in Georgetown, but four years later migrated to Trinidad with her family.
A difficult but successful move brought Mona K to Bishop Anstey Junior School, then located in the High School compound, as teacher of the pre-common entrance class. At age 48, this petite but courageous woman resumed studies in education by correspondence, which she completed the following year on a three month trip to the United Kingdom.
After three years at BAJS, she moved to the University School. One year later when the last English Principal of the Junior School returned to England, Mona K Georges, whose signature stood out boldly on every piece of correspondence and school report received by us parents of children at BAJS in the mid 60'S, returned to BAJS as principal and led the school into new premises at Monte Cristo, during which time there was dramatic increase in the school population and reputation. The school developed a secondary department which eventually evolved into what is now known as Bishop's Centenary College.
The establishment of her very own St Gabriel's Private School was a traumatic episode with several obstacles which could very well have prevented it from ever coming into existence, and would have daunted weaker persons, but with grit and determination Mona K Georges weathered every storm and contrary to advice of professionals to delay the opening, refused to let down those parents who had shown confidence in her. The fact that the school opened at all is testimony to her prayers and determination.
St Gabriel's has served Trinidad and Tobago for almost 28 years, with Mona K Georges ensuring that the students were given a rounded education, wider in scope than what was necessary to pass examinations, enhancing the spiritual values which she considered to be most important, teaching Religious Knowledge and ethics herself.
Throughout her life in Trinidad, Mona Georges was a regular attending parishioner of All Saints Anglican Church and was a member of the Prayer Group until her departure from Trinidad in 1997, at which time she spent periods of a few months with each of her children until she required professional care and returned to Trinidad, where on June 5, 2000, her indomitable heart, which had carried her through life, failed and she left this world.