MISS BOBBITT LEAVES
WESLEY
(September, 1980, for the
'The Chronicle' magazine)
Miss Lucy Bobbitt, resident Assistant
Matron since July, 1969, commands unique perspectives of the Wesley College
Boarding House.
No other member of the recent Wesley
community has lived within the school as long as she. More significantly,
though, no one else has observed at such close hand the changing nature
of the House.
When Miss Bobbitt arrived, Adamson
House encircled the hallowed Boarders' Quadrangle as it always had.
Since that time, she has seen the House disperse to the extremities - first
to fully occupy the Punt Road building and, latterly, to be divided between
the original "Toorak" and the leased "Kafore" in High Street.
In a decade of change, Miss Bobbitt
has calmly, faithfully and compassionately served the multitude of people
who have come within her ambit:- an injured footballer from another
school, a boarder ill in the early morning hours, the Housemaster with
children to be "sat", sixth-formers waiting for the house-phone to ring
with the invitation to come up for the cakes. All will testify to
her gentle care and her willing assistance.
And what of the laundry? Can
there be a greater service than arranging for the clothed cleanliness of
ninety pre-adolescent or adolescent males? Let alone keeping track
of their linen!
All this, and more, cause those who
have shared a part of their lives with Miss Bobbitt in the Wesley Boarding
House to thank her with affectionate gratitude and respect.
With the closing of the House in
1980, Miss Bobbitt is contemplating becoming more closely associated with
the healing ministry of the Christian Church and we wish her well.
For Wesley, however, her historical
and personal experience and insight bind her forever to its destiny, and
Wesley is thankful. |