Professional Status

Midwifery graduation. Cebu, Philippines 1963

Mum’s training at the school. She’s ready, had her hair done in a french twist at the salon, uniform is immaculate, red lipstick *

Waiting for the call to attend the ceremony and join her classmates up on stage to collect her midwifery diploma and graduation ring.

…

“Sorry but you can’t graduate Miss, your family haven’t paid the last instalment of tuition fees”

Mum calls her older brother Romeo

“Please come and take me home…”

Uncle Romi – a maritime engineer, asks his skipper if his sister can come aboard. Mum sleeps in his cabin. It takes a day and a night to get back.

Few months later Mum travels to Manila to take the board exam and returns to Toledo City – a gold mining city in Cebu to work, this is where she meets Tanny, the friend she would later came to London with.

Every time they pass her old school it’s bitter sweet for Mum. They go wandering round the town on days off, and one day Mum sees this ring in a pawn shop.

” I liked it because it was solid gold! It was much nicer than my school ring which had a ruby… I said to myself YES! this ring will make me look professional and give me status! so I bought it for myself “

Mum only just told me this story, I’d never even looked that closely at her graduation ring, it’s not even from the same year let alone school!

_{*Mum said at Midwifery school students were told that one of the requirements was to wear Red lipstick on duty, this was incase they felt ill attending a delivery and so as not to frighten the mother to be!… Mum wore Revlon}.