Hi Miss Loh,
You probably don't remember me - I was quite involved in performing arts, but I was never in a key position, always someone who somehow got in with the rest of the choir. Haha.
But hi, this is Eudora - you taught me Music in Sec 1, we learnt The First Noel. Then in Sec 3, I learnt that you were our Elective Lit teacher. I was thrilled. I didn't know you taught Elective Lit, prior had the impression that you were a Pure Lit teacher. I remembered your personality from Sec 1 - so twinkly, so bubbly .. always with a smile. Then in Sec 3 - Macbeth made Sense! to us, when you taught this to us in class. As I've commented on the Alumni page - you would excitedly tell us how you did this play for Sec 3 too, that your copy was different - it was red! & that was because you kept your copy since your student days, & were using that copy to teach us. Haha I remember how amused I was when I finally snuck a peek to realise it was true! Then Sec 4 came & in addition to Elective Lit - you became my English teacher. You were taking only one English class that year - & it was my blessing & privilege to be a part of it. I didn't exactly have the best experience in Sec 3 English class - to have a new experience, & to have you shape that experience .. was truly a privilege & treat. I remember my kiasu self choping you as often as I could (!) for night studies & things, cos I was so afraid of O levels, as all graduating kids are haha. But then I remember you sitting me down patiently, & one day you told me you saw in me the potential to AT LEAST get a distinction. I did, I even got a distinction in Combined Humanities for Elective Lit as well. :')
But perhaps even then - I remember nothing about academics (haha except endless note taking by hand when you'd write all over the board. Then you'd tell us that hand-written note-taking trains memory, so you'd rather make us copy, than print for us to read. 8 years later, I realise .. it's true! Haha.)
Instead I remember Musicals. I remember performing arts. I remember Choir. I remember ... you teaching us all these PL songs, Find Us Faithful during Orientation, "Our School", so on & so forth. & although you were CCA HOD of Performing Arts - nope. Whenever you taught us a song, it wasn't Miss Adeline Loh, HOD Aesthetics CCA who spoke. Instead, your face would light up & your eyes twinkle - & you'd speak from the perspective of that PL-Lite teenager of ages past (haha ok you're not so old!), wanting to share songs that shaped her teenage years with current batches of lost & clueless teenagers, haha.
Did you know, it was because of your love and passion for PL that made me wanna go back and teach at PL for 100th? Not sure if I can do that now - even if I somehow do .. it'll be different without you!
We're all talking about you now, & one thing that keeps coming to mind - is how .. you impacted my life, although I was never your favourite - but wait! Miss Loh never played favourites. Which was such a treasured aspect, more so even now.
I last saw you (in the aisles, mingling with present & past colleagues & students) at 2012's Musical - For God So Loved. & I remember squirming in my seat, my secretly eager to come say HELLO MISS LOH!, but slightly afraid - because I was such a wallflower, who probably never stood out amongst all the other probably more outstanding students, what with their leadership roles and all. That and your tendency to forget names, haha :') Now I really, really wish I did.
So much more to say - but I never was meant to be a PL-Lite, I appealed in after being just short of the cut-off, & was graciously offered a place. You probably saw my appeal forms haha, cos I appealed through Choir. I spent the first two years of my PL life (especially Sec 1) wondering what on earth I was doing in this place .. & the next two, determined that with people like you who love PL as passionately as you did, so keen & eager to share that love - that it was fully possible, for this half-blood adopted child(! Hahaha) to come to fully love PL like her own, too. Do you know, every Founders' Day when I share the alumnus post - I say "happy birthday, favourite school!" & I still do, as I will continue to. & I will always hold PL close to my heart - one of those who played such a fundamental role in this mindset/change of heart - is you.
I kind of took for granted you'd helm the centenary celebrations (who better than you whose whole life was PL), that I would come back as I did every 4 years, & see you around during Musical. But now - oh.
I refuse to believe the cancer won - because knowing you, you'd never let it win. I think ... God let you win it on the other side of eternity instead because hey - better harps over there no?
I can't believe this hits me as hard as it does - but the Miss Loh I knew was twinkly, kind, encouraging, passionate about people & music & God & PL .. I can't believe you're gone so soon.
But for now - I take heart that you're on the other side of eternity, probably like conducting the harp orchestra there or something .. nonetheless being here still hurts for the meantime, heh.
"Don't tell me that you've never seen
The moon up in the sky
Don't tell me that you've never asked
Who put it there & why
The creator of the universe
Our God of grace & light
Put it there to show us
He is still there in the night"
- so I shall be comforted that God's still with us even as we miss you so, so dearly. You are terribly missed - but please know you left such a legacy, which will be remembered for a long time to come. Thank you for making a difference to this adopted PL-Lite's life, haha :')
(& this feels wayyy too lengthy but nonetheless still wayyy inadequate haha so much else left unsaid!)
In His love & mine,
Eudora (graduation class of 2007, 4B2) <3 x