The
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Class
Reunion of My Wife as a School Teacher
By
Manuel Luciano da Silva, Medical Doctor
I accompanied my wife, Silvia, to her Fiftieth Class Reunion as a School Teacher, which was held in the City of Faro, Algarve, Portugal, on Saturday, May 31st, 2003.
I liked it, I liked it, very much! It is always a happy experience to see professionals getting together with their colleagues over the years. In this case fifty years have gone by, which is half a century!
I was very much surprise to see that all the Teachers had a healthy appearance. The girls in the class were the overwhelming majority. Only five boys belonged to a class of sixty-nine students. None of the ladies were overweight. They all were in their seventies, but I guess, they got into the habit of reading women’s magazines and paid attention to the medical recommendations to follow correct diets. Good teaching! Congratulations to all of them.
Silvia was the baby of her class. Because she was too young to be able to enter into the Teacher’s School, she had to have a special permission from the Ministry of Education in Lisbon.
The Fiftieth Celebrations began with a Catholic Mass in the Cathedral of Faro, presided by the Bishop of Algarve, Dom Manuel Madureira Dias., who gave a brilliant Homily based on the meaning and responsibility of being a school teacher. At the end of the religious services I went to congratulate the Bishop and told him if he had delivered such a speech here in New England he would have gotten a big applause!
After the mass all teachers, in a group, walked to the statue of Poet João de Deus and placed a bouquet of flowers to homage his pedagogical qualities.
The
group of Teachers in front of the statue of Poet João de Deus.
The five male
teachers are on the back. Silvia is the one with red blouse.
After this ceremony everyone went to Hotel Monaco where we had a very good meal with roasted lamb accompanied with all the goodies and a variety of wines.
When the meal was over the Committee who organized the celebration presided by Susete Pavão gave to each teacher a Commemorative Medallion of the Fiftieth Reunion.
Of course during this encounter there were many remembrances of times when they all were students, and some even shared a tear or two.
Before everyone departed to their homes, the Fiftieth Reunion cake was cut and everyone took their piece and a promise was made to get together next year, in a locale yet to be designated.
Because some colleagues, from the North of Portugal, were not able to go to Faro, which is the extreme south of the country, the Teacher Odete Brandão Porto, from Arouca, called the other colleagues and there was another banquet in the Restaurante Abadia de Este, in the City of Braga, so they could received their Commemorative Medallion of the Fiftieth Reunion.
This was done and after a delicious meal.
Before we departed, I took a group photo of the colleagues who reside in north of Portugal. Here it is the photo:
