1972

I often wonder whatever became of Faith Cawkwell.

She was the plain girl who sat up the back of my primary five class and said very little, although she always seemed to be very cheery. She joined us when they merged one other class into the other two classes in the same year because the previous size reductions had proven too radical, or something. She and I probably never exchanged more than a dozen words together - I cannot even place her accent. She always wore a blue cardigan, maybe the same one. She had a haircut that looked old-fashioned, like something out of the forties. She didn't go on paid school trips because her family could not afford to send her. She never had many friends that I can remember, but always looked happy. She was pretty dim; I cannot remember her ever being able to answer any question that the teachers set her in class. She was the pupil who was always expected to come either bottom or near to the bottom in tests. When we took mixed gym classes she was found to be wearing very old-fashioned blue stretch nylon shorts and rubber plimsols, unlike the others who wore football shorts and training shoes. No one mocked her for being poor; the girls were more mature than to do this and the boys never noticed her enough to make fun of her.

She surprised a number of others by not attending any religious events held in the school. It later transpired this was because her parents were in the Salvation Army and disapproved of sending their daughter to anything other than their own meetings. Her religion never occurred to us for a second. I never knew if she had any siblings, but if she had sisters named Hope and Charity then I would not be surprised. I've just Googled for her name but nothing clear came up. Maybe she changed her name. Maybe she married and is living a different life away from cheap blue gym shorts. Maybe she now has kids. Maybe she looks back on her school days fondly. Maybe she still believes in the Salvation Army.

And maybe she wonders whatever happened to me - a person as marginal to her life as she was to mine - in the same way that I often wonder whatever became of Faith Cawkwell.