NATHAN HOUSE NEWSLETTER - Term 4 Volume 1 | Page 5

3 weeks at College when we’d had no contact, he had taken on the Red, Black and White as his and part of
him. As for me, I relaxed in the knowledge that he was happy, he was being fed and taught well, and so I
would no longer have to suck on a wine bottle to drown my sorrows each night.
The callboxes were a nightmare – ringing endlessly before the boys were released from prep, then engaged, engaged, engaged… (me dialling from my cell phone and our daughter Emma on the land line; Nick looking at us
as though we were crazy), then finally 2 rings and a hopeful voice on the other side, “Hello???.....oh, okay
M’am, I’ll call Kipp Lovell-Greene…..”. The progress to cell phones in term 3 relieved the pressure on
Telkom and parents-in-waiting… but funnily enough, we now talk less during the week than we needed to in
the first two terms.
Well done 2013 Nathan’s boys on your graduation. You’ve done well to make it through – some unscathed,
some not so much – but most of you whole, and all of you having grown up at least 2 to 3 years’ worth since
you arrived at College just 10 months ago in your bright new clothes and short haircuts. Onward and upward
to Hudson and Clark Houses.
Mr Larter – thank you for the role you have played in Nathan’s this year. It is good for grown men to have
compassion and to be able to show it to and share it with growing men. (Um, about that ‘blanket punishment’
policy… hahaha!)

… and another
I cannot believe that we are at the end of our first year of Maritzburg College! Where has the year gone? I say
‘our’ year because I think as moms sending our babies off to boarding school was as big for us, as it was for
them! A significant end of one season of their junior lives and stepping into the season of our boys now being
fine-tuned into young gentlemen!
It seemed just the other day I was packing, checking all my sons clothes were marked with his name & number. Then having to bury my head deep into t hat larger than necessary tog bag to hide my tears & try shelve
the thought of dropping him off and saying goodbye! Having experienced boarding school myself and knowing what it is about, it is still difficult to send your boy off.
As the days and weeks passed, the first phone call came from the mentor to say the boys are alive and doing
well. I sighed a huge sigh of relief knowing they had survived Roselands and weeks with no communication.
Seeing them the first time, at the Sunday family picnic was overwhelming. Our boys seemed taller but only
because they had started dropping in pant sizes. No more claiming the sofa horizontally at home! The finetuning had begun!
This first year at College has been a good year. Yes, a few hic-ups and tears for us all because it is new for our
boys as well as us moms. Trying to understand why at 9pm they’re not getting into their pajamas and jumping
into bed but instead getting into their number ones to guard the pool, or getting up at 4.30 to prepare for prefects table, our immediate thought is that our boys are going to be shattered. How will they cope? Keith
Guise-Brown’s words at the first assembly when our boys started have been a constant reminder to me. He
said there are many things that will take place that may seem silly and irrelevant but at the end of the day it
will all make sense.
In the safe environment of Nathan House, our boys have been shown the ropes, been taught the do’s and
don’ts and begun to grow. Little bonds have started forming that are going to grow into sound friendships.
From a one call home every day, down to maybe three calls a week, to me now saying please phone me this