Marymount Convent Marian Centre Alumni

No time to edit Or read through. Glaring errors just make do:)Next would be horror stories committed by the boys and the more fun stuff we did
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Marian Centre Part One.


Melinda, Angeline, Weili, Peiqi, Gabriel, Vincent.. the few I still meet up with, since we left after 1994. Some earlier than others. I think Marian Centre shaped all of us in different ways. As I think back as much as I hated it there I loved it.I've been back there to volunteer a day or two after school while I was teaching in Marymount and Westlake but hmmm feels so differnt at the new location at Rose Hut. Mother Theresas home took our OUR building.
When i am rich I will buy it back for Marian Centre.*nods*

To those not involved, Marian Centre was for the underprivileged or wayward kids. But that was a misconception. Perhaps, there were some that were from broken families, working single moms, busy dads, perhaps too there were some among us that had troubled childhoods and things that the sisters and teachers kept from us. But all in all Marian Centre was just a day care centre for us to hang around before school or after school.

There are so many memories and visuals that now appear before me as I type. My first memory weirdly was of Melinda’s slippers. Pale green, mint. With an ice-cream print on it. Then Miss Lim (Mrs Martina Wee who we sorely miss and are trying to contact) telling us to put our backpacks on the shelf.

I remember the rainy days when Melinda’s Dad will drop us off where Uncle John used to park, near that really old and tall Caucasian sister’s room.(Her name eludes me now but I am sure to recall it EDIT: Sure I did Sister Ita/Etta). The room we never entered till we were in Primary Six (it was during that period of time when horror stories were flung everywhere after the AVA room incident and she brought us all in and prayed with us)

Breakfast was usually a cup of Milo or very rarely Nestum. We always had Khong Guan biscuits in a tin in the corner shelf in the Recreational Room. There was a period of time we always got Poh Chee to help us buy Nissin cup noodles. Usually one of the earlier few to arrive, we would scream and run about till Miss Lim or Miss Leong came up the slope and entered the drive-way with their heavy bags.

The teachers/volunteers, I think they were paid but very little. Miss Lim was new as were were new when we entered in Primary One. I would put her at 24-25 then, she told us that she had a calling from Mary to help out at Marian Centre) We loved Miss Lim. We did. Friendly and quiet demeanour, large smiling eyes (probably Peranakan come to think of it), petite, and if I remember correctly she had a little dark almost bluish mole near her thumb. She was like the Good Witch to the North to Miss Leong’s evil persona - Fair, tall, fierce, loud and less personable. Miss Lim was open to hugs while Miss Leong simply grunted. But that was then in all honesty she wasn’t all that bad. Probably we were prejudiced simply because she gave us more assessment homework and harder spelling lists. Miss Wee and her plaid huge shirts bobbed hairdo and uber crisp English,(that we eventually realised that she was a friend of our speech and drama teacher and taught at her school occasionally- that reminds me Sid still owes me $50s for 2 lessons I taught early last year). Miss D’Cruz was a horror, we hated and her and we still do. Maybe except for Poh Chee she was the Teacher’s Pet. I remember her hitting someone and the person cried. Can’t remember who though.(hehe I think we are evil for excluding her on our weekly excursions). Oh yes Lisa more volunteer than teacher I think she was after JC or Uni. Dark long bushy hair bespectacled and she was a great artist, she sorta taught us to colour properly lol. There after we started colouring all our prayer books. Sha gave me a mug with my name engraved. I still use it and have it actually. I dunno whether was it her who taugh us how to play bluff or was in Dominic and Co a bunch of students from Catholic JC. They seemed so old compared to out 8-10s. Gosh look at us now. Who would have thought we'd ever turn 24. lol.

The sisters that were in charge of Marian Centre came and went. Some I remember vividly some I don’t. Sister Rosita was in charge when we first entered, a Filipino of little words, friendly and warm no doubt. Sister Lucy was soft spoken and so was Sister Agnes.
Sister Rosalind came next, and allow me to say this but she was my favourite. Tall, gangly, hilarious and she was so easy going. She’s had a personality that I would akin to that of a favourite aunt – the aunt that would come over to your place without warning and giving you toys and colouring books, trying your burnt cookies, talking to you about the most mundane of things and making them funny and then suddenly zipping off on another mission to save the world. But she left us after awhile to head the hostel and Sister Colette came into the picture. Till now I still have mixed thoughts about her. She always seemed so distant and so protocol-ish Looking a little like Whoppi Goldberg in a veil in Sisters Act, just tinier and very very taciturn. Her pluses were there, like teaching us how to make jewellery to sell during the Primary 6 Carnival, and allowing us to set up the Haunted house in the Resting-Room that was a HUGEHUGE success and we made so many people cry.

Uncle John, the skinny smiling fair-skinned old man that used to drive us around on Excursions and grocery shopping. Our group only became the privileged few after we got up to upper primary and were allowed to go on shopping trips. I remember the first Uncle John left and we sang “For he’s a jolly good fellow, the other uncle took over a darker uncle. But the ironic thing was- this Uncle John was not called John but for ease of remembering cos we were precocious young little girls, Sister Colette asked if we could call him that. Hmm… which then makes me wonder if the first Uncle John was an Uncle John in the first place?

Birthdays were a treat, other than presents we had a cake - The Pandan Kaya Cake. Gengawan Solo. I have not had a slice of that after we left in 94 Not the chiffon one but the one with the layer of coconut shavings. Talking about food, how we hated Fried Rice then. I actually kinda like Peas now but I cant say the same for Mel. We used to passed them under the table with a spoon to Vivienna without being caught. Mel loved the chicken necks that were used to cook our chicken porridge. We all loved the Shepherd’s Pie that Auntie Jacinta a Sri Lankan auntie used to prepare. She kept chickens in a coop and the eggs used to break before they hatched. She came after Auntie Luciana left. I think we were quite a handful and she was getting quite old and her daughter Angie/Anqi I think, was a little mentally challenged. I saw them once a long time back while shopping I don’t remember if I called out to them though.

And those piano sessions we had at the hall. It was our playground on rainy days, I think someone fell once and chipped front tooth, I think it was Cindy but I may be wrong. Marian Centre encouraged me to sing on stage. I dunno how I found the courage and that I did not get stage fright like now or how they knew I could sing in the first place but Sister Eugene I remember was always asking me to sing. But we learnt a lot of songs there, like that “Let it be” music book that belonged to Miss Lim that by the end of our sith year was reduced to a couple of separated piles of song sheets. Molly Malone was taught by an Irish Volunteer that came to help. I remember her smoking behind at the field after tea.

Tea was sponsored stuff from The Bake House along Novena. The UFO as we termed it was the cinnamon rolls that everyone wd fight for. The sausage rolls were the other hot favourite.

I realised we had lots of play time even though it did not feel like it then. We used to catch grasshoppers with our hands and kept them in plastic bags. Weili was the best catcher. We had Rounders sessions too and that in away attributed to my fear of ball games for awhile when one red hard plastic ball slammed me hard on my cheek during a game. Durian Trees, Rambutan trees, Mango Trees, we were pretty lucky eh come to think of it.

I remember me loving the feel of barefeet on smooth cemented floors, walking around the recreation room during our study times of 9-1030 I think before Prayer time and Lunch. We were horrible we usually chose the shortest Hymn so that we could rush to Lunch quickly. “ In his time”, or “In moments like this”. We thought we could get away with it, singina our TWO FAVOURITE S but Miss Lim realised after awhile and made us sing two more if we did that. Bummer.


Marian Centre taught us chores by giving each of us a duty too like sweeping the floor, mopping clearing the bin. It was good if you had a friend planning the Roster. She’d prolly give you easier task. I hated anything that would need me to enter the storeroom under the stairs cos there were HUGE Lizards in there.

Diary writing. That was also another hilarious thing we had to do. It was boring and it meant extra homework. I did not keep my book but maybe Mel still has it.(CHECKED : SHE STILL HAS IT) Itwould probably go like this.

“ Dear Diary, Today I went to Marian Centre at 730, I was very sleepy because I slept late last night. We had study time and I got 9/10 for my spelling because I spelt hipppopopotamus wrongly. We had prayer time, then lunch time.We had fried rice. Then we changed into our uniforms and then we played on the swing. Then at 1 we heard the bell ring and then we ran to school. Lucky we were in time and the Prefect did not take down my name. Then after school we went home.”

Realise the many thens.. I remember one of the teachers chastising us for using THEN all the time. Till now I limit my thens.

That’s kinda long for a first Nostalgic post.

As I said just now we should start an Alumni. :)
Marymount Marian Centre Alumni. Pretty cool eh.

And look what i found:)



Back row: Sister Colette, Sister Ita/Etta,(Dunno), Sister Mary(I think), (Dunno)
Front seat: (Dunno)(Dunno) Sister Eugene.



I remember seeing her around as a trainee nun there