“For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord:
whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” – Rom. 14 : 8
In June 2022, Miss Dimond wrote a brief letter to a past pupil of Wesley Girls’ High
School (WGHS), Cape Coast, Ghana, sharing her memories of her time at the school
between 1965 and circa 1971 / 1972. This was in response to efforts by the Old Girls’
Association (OGA) of the school to locate as many as possible of the expatriate
teachers who had, so many years previously, dedicated their time and talents to
teaching, nurturing and mentoring the pupils who passed through the school. Little did
the recipient know that within 3 months, Miss Dimond would be gone from this world.
“How long ago it seems,” Miss Dimond’s letter begins, “since I first set foot in WGHS.”
She was the Music teacher and the sole one at that for a little while. Her passion for
music is clearly revealed in the contents of her letter. She narrates that when she
arrived at WGHS, she was surprised to find that there was no choir!! This she started
up straight away, determined to remedy the situation. Thus, in her own words: “A notice
went up on the notice board suggesting anyone who wanted to join the choir should
meet in the Assembly Hall. Each girl was given a sheet of paper. Soon, we had a 2-
storeyed choir which took its turn to sing at services for the school. Generally, we sang
for evening service.” Miss Dimond further recalls occasions when the choir would join
Mfantsipim School or Adisadel College (two boys’ schools in the area) to perform
cantatas like “No Greater Love” and “Glorious Night of Miracles”. The choir also
performed on occasion at the Ankaful Leprosarium.
There was never a dull moment at choir practice. Miss Dimond would take us by
surprise by coming up with what we at the time would consider a “weird” tune to sing in
place of the regular and more familiar one. She always got over our initial reluctance by
constantly egging us on and willing us to get the hang of the new, unfamiliar tune.
When we did practice familiar pieces, she would sometimes tinker with the harmony and
make it more complicated, in our opinion, and therefore harder to perform well, to her
satisfaction. She was nothing if not innovative and adventurous when it came to music.
Music classes were always fun with Miss Dimond. She had so many innovative ideas.
She was an excellent pianist and played hymns to perfection whenever she was on duty
to play the accompaniment at morning assembly. Her music classes were a marvellous
stress relief from the more tedious lessons like maths and the sciences. In the lower
Forms, there was much singing: we practiced the hymns that would be sung at the
morning and evening Sunday services; and in addition, she made time to teach us
many British folk songs and madrigals. By the time one got to the 3 rd Form, she would
have begun to teach basics of the theory and practice of music, and to introduce the
class to music history and the classical masters like Beethoven, Mendelssohn,
Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Mozart. She was disappointed to note that most of the girls
had no appreciation whatsoever for classical music.
Miss Dimond was House Mistress for Wrigley House and many of the Old Girls, on
learning of her demise, shared their memories of her, remembering her as a strict
enforcer of dormitory rules such as “no eating in the dormitory”, “lights out” (this was to
be strictly observed on time) and “no talking after lights out” (flouting this was
punishable in so many ways).
Sophia (now in her early 70s but then a 12- or 13-year-old) shares a very interesting
memory:
“I believe I was in Form 2. Out of the blue, Miss Dimond stopped me one day
after lunch as I was on my way to Waldron House, hurrying to make it before the
warning bell rang signalling the beginning of the compulsory afternoon ‘rest hour’.
‘Sophia, for the coming Easter services, I would like you to read a Bible passage
in church to the accompaniment of piano music. I will play and you will read
along on synchrony.’
Without thinking, I quickly accepted.
“It became an arduous daily practice during ‘rest hour’ except for Saturdays and
Sundays. The perfectionist that she was, with her insistence, correcting and over-
correcting me repeatedly to get the synchronization to perfection, stress on my
part began to set in. A perfectionist myself, who felt she was giving it her all,
frustration began to surface to the point that I was losing sleep and getting
butterflies in my stomach each afternoon as I walked to the Music Room to wait
for her.
“I had always been a goody two shoes (as now at this mature age I can admit to
and laugh at myself) always eager to please – at home, at school, … So I was
surprised at myself one afternoon while reading and Miss Dimond playing the
piano, she suddenly shouted at me – and I shouted back!!! -- so uncharacteristic
of me and definitely not a “Wey Gey Hey” thing to do! I exploded: ‘Miss Dimond, I
QUIT!! I can’t do this anymore!’
There was quiet! There was calm!
To my surprise, she responded (unexpectedly) in a reassuring, calm manner:
‘That’s all right. You don’t have to do this anymore.’
“Imagine my RELIEF … the instantaneous disappearance of the butterflies in my
stomach and the energy in my step as I walked back to my bed in Waldron
House, impatiently waiting for the end of ‘rest hour’ so I could tell my story. To my
dorm mates, this was vindication for me, but they couldn’t believe that Miss
Dimond would cave in so quickly.
“Come the D-day, there was a reading by me WITHOUT any accompanying
music.”
The role played by our past expatriate teachers has contributed in no small measure to
shaping us into the women that we have become today, and the objective of the OGA in
reaching out to them is to formally and properly express our profound appreciation to them and to maintain contact with them permanently, keeping them updated with
happenings at WGHS. As a contemporary of Sophia’s observed, on learning of Miss
Dimond’s demise:
“When I hear of these transitions of our teachers, I am always struck by the fact
that they really were not that much older than us. … But the authoritative voices
with which they spoke and the way they [carried] themselves, combined with the
school’s own strict, disciplinary traditions, meant that the age differences seemed
larger and there were boundaries that we could not cross (except behind them
backs, of course, with the nicknames we gave them). Most of them were
dedicated to imparting knowledge and good manners and we are all the better for
having been taught by them.”
Today, as we bid farewell to Miss Dimond’s mortal remains, we do so in sure hope of
the resurrection, knowing that although our recent attempt to catch up with her didn’t
work out in the way we had wished; we shall meet her again ‘when the trumpet of the
Lord shall sound’.
May the soul of Miss Marilyn Dimond, our Music teacher and choir mistress, rest in
eternal peace.
the beautiful wreath was done by our UK and Ireland Sister on behalf of WGHS OGA
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