Alumnae News
Christine Johnson (1976)
Many thanks to Christine Johnson (1976) who sent in this photo of her First Holy Communion held around 1966. She writes:
Please see attached my First Communion photo. I’m the one with the glasses
From L-R are Mandy Brew, Helen Boer, Sally-Ann Collopy, Veronica Scurry, Susan Banting, Anne Tuohey, me, Christina Condon and Michelle Williams
I spent my entire school life at Sacré Cœur and completed Year 12, then known as Form 6, in 1976.
Christine is a renowned artist and was
commissioned to work on a project last year for Monash University called Five Soldiers.
On her website there are links to the artworks, book and documentary.
Congratulations also to Christine and Monash University for winning the CASE award for their project.
Sr Nancy Fitzgerald RSCJ (1946)
Congratulations to Sr Nancy who recently celebrated both her 90th Birthday and the 70th anniversary of her First Vows after entering the convent at seventeen. She attended Burke Road from 1944-46, following three Aunts and her two sisters, Margot and Sr Marita Fitzgerald RSCJ. Sr Nancy wrote to us recently:
I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. I feel about twenty and act younger than that. God is good.
Margaret Hawes (McKenna 1962)
Margaret Hawes is pictured above keeping fit at her "Groove and Move" class. She is doing well in the ACT and wishes the rest of world was also COVID-19 free.
"I hope you are all out of lockdown before too long. May we live in peace and harmony. Keep up the good work and don’t forget to smile."
We'd love to see your photos of how you're keeping fit during lockdown. Hopefully Margaret has inspired you!
Betty Coracas
Betty Coracas lived at Sacré Cœur in 1971 and was the first lay person to stay at the school under such unusual circumstances - she was not employed, nor was she a boarding student or nun. The position was created for her at the suggestion of her College Principal, who was good friends with both the Reverend Mother, Sister Patricia Toohey, and the Principal, Sister Morag Archibald. Here she shares her story of her time at Sacré Coeur and would love to hear from any of the students from that time.
My Year at Sacré Coeur by Betty Coracas
When my father migrated to Melbourne in 1954 he brought Greek traditions with him. While my five older siblings adhered to the tradition of arranged marriages, I rebelled, causing devastation and estrangement from my father.
In 1971, at the urging of my friends, and with the help of my College Principal, I went to live at Sacré Cœur Convent School. I was nineteen and a half and beginning third year at Melbourne University. It was unusual then for Greek girls to be going to university since they were expected to marry.
The Reverend Mother, Patricia Toohey, and the Principal, Sister Morag Archibald, sympathised and offered a solution. For free board I would supervise the senior girls’ homework studies. Saturdays, was reception and phone duties.
On my first Saturday the local priest had mistaken me for a nun as I was dressed in black, except that my dress was mini. He was relieved when told I wasn’t a nun. Sunday I was free to have visitors or to go out. Curfew was eleven in the evening.
My single room on the second level was named after St Agnes. It overlooked the vast lawn and garden at the front of the convent school. On arrival at the convent, a nun and two senior girls took me up to my room and when the nun switched on the light it didn’t work. She began praying loudly to St Agnes to show her powers and turn on the light! The two girls strained to contain themselves and I remained poker faced until the maintenance man was called to change the light globe. It was the furthest room at the end of the corridor, and nearby, was a kitchen and bathroom. There was a laundry chute for our clothes, attended by laundry staff, but I washed my intimate garments.
The nuns provided warmth, love, and security of home. At the nuns’ suggestion I invited my family to visit. My married eldest sister came with her husband and brought our mother. My father refused to come.
I was invited to attend Mass, which I did on many occasions because I was curious to learn about Catholicism, but I was never pressured to consider entering the RSCJ. The head cook, Mira, provided lunch each day for me to take to university and every chance I would go to the kitchen to learn to cook. After two months I promised the nuns I would cook lunch and dinner for them on a Sunday to give them the day off. My offer stressed the older nuns who wondered if the good Lord was going to provide a meal for them. After that day I was no longer addressed as Miss Christofi, but I became ‘our Betty’.
There was one occasion where I was invited on a dinner date by a gentleman that I had met when my sister and brother-in-law took me out. The poor unsuspecting man arrived at the Convent with flowers and chocolates and was greeted by the Reverend Mother and the Principal who interviewed him for half an hour before allowing him to collect me! They made sure they had his details and details of the restaurant before permitting the date.
When the musical Jesus Christ Superstar was on, I invited Sister Behan to come with me. It caused a stir among the nuns and they were anxious to hear about it. My crocheted evening gown entry into the Gown of the Year contest was also a talking point as the girls and nuns watched the gown’s progress.
During the latter half of the year, at my second sister’s wedding, I was ignored by my father and the guests shunned me. The experience negatively impacted my health. I found I could no longer cope with university and decided to leave. The nuns were sad and gifted a ‘dowry’ of sorts, two cardboard boxes containing cookware, cutlery and crockery.
Sister Behan drove me to my new address at an old Edwardian rooming house in Burke Road, Camberwell, not far from the Convent. Mother Toohey had gifted me $20 to secure the room but my stay was short-lived in any case. My eldest brother, George, arrived on the sixth day and took me back to our parents’ shop in Ivanhoe.