There was nun like her

I HAD forgotten much.

It is perhaps forgivable since it is close to half a century since my time as a student at Assunta Secondary Girls School.

But the passing of Datin Paduka Sister Enda Ryan, who co-founded the school and was its first and most influential headmistress, rekindled a lot of memories.

Her death last week at age 96 brought forth an outpouring of love, admiration and gratitude from the many students during her 31-year tenure from January 1958 to May 1989.

My sisters and I are among those who benefited from her devoted and passionate stewardship of the school.

Assunta was our police officer dad’s choice for his young daughters when he was transferred from Penang to Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur, in the mid-1960s.

We settled in Petaling Jaya and Dad most likely decided on Assunta Primary School because he heard good things about it. From primary we went on to Assunta Secondary and forever became Assuntarians.

There are four of us and today’s column is dedicated to Sister Enda by the Wong Sisters, as she used to call us.

There must be plenty of students surnamed Wong who passed through Assunta but we became well-known to Sister Enda, thanks mainly to my eldest and youngest sisters, Beatrice and Claire, because of their contributions to the school.

The two of us in between, May and me, were quite middling and ordinary but we too have our good memories.

May recalls Sister Enda’s energy and how she was always so kind to and supportive of all her students.

“Although the school had a big student body, she always had a personal touch with each of us.

She attended my wedding and was at the tea ceremony and gave me a beautiful plaque with a handwritten message on the back.

“She’s very much a part of me even now. It was a privilege to be an Assuntarian.”

As for me, Sister Enda was my shepherdess on my very first day as a 12-year-old First Former.

First and Second Forms had afternoon sessions, and when school ended, dad forgot to pick me up. As night descended, I was the only student left behind.

Sister Enda came by and since this was before mobile phones and when even house telephones were a luxury, she could not contact my family.

So she did the next best thing: loaded me in her car and drove me home.

I don’t recall what happened after that but that car made a big impression as it was as unique as its owner.

As Nesamalar Chitravelu writes in Sister Enda’s biography, Make Me an Instrument:

The Singing Nun, her Mini Minor stationwagon with the number plate BAD 513 was indeed one of her signature possessions and “a car everyone in Assunta knew!

” It was often used to take lost children home, sick ones to the doctor’s, as well as to retrieve truants.

That feeling of being looked after from my very first day stayed with me throughout the five years of my secondary school life.

I remember Assunta as a lovely school with lots of green spaces, sunshine and airy classrooms.

Beatrice has an explanation for that.

“The school was always very well maintained and pleasant because Sister was always making her rounds and keeping an eye on things.”

She remembers Sister Enda both as a student and as a teacher. She served as the upper forms’ science teacher for 10 years before she emigrated to Australia.

Beatrice cites an example of Sister Enda’s deep interest in her students:

“She would go through the MCE results and write little congratulatory notes to those with excellent results.

I got one from her.

“After sitting for my MCE [the precursor to SPM], I did a lot of casual teaching as a substitute teacher so I was known to Sister.

After I got my degree and my diploma in Education at Universiti Malaya, I asked Sister whether I could be posted to Assunta.

“She took me straight to the Selangor Education Department and told the officers that the school had a vacancy and she wanted me.

“Sister was so respected that they agreed to her request immediately and that was how I got in.”

When it came to the school staff, Beatrice shares that Sister Enda always had their welfare at heart.

“We had regular staff meetings and there would hardly be any dissent because her decisions made a lot of sense and we all trusted her.

“The same went for the parents.

At the Parent-Teacher Association meetings, she could address any issue raised because she knew everything about the school.”

When Beatrice decided to move to Sydney, Australia, Sister Enda provided her with a glowing testimonial which my sister believes helped her land a job in a school there.

“I got an interview at a Catholic private school in a Sydney suburb.

By sheer coincidence, the principal, Brother Peter Ryan, had the same surname as Sister Enda.

I think it helped that I had worked in a mission school under a nun before,” Beatrice reminisces.

Our youngest sister Claire, a former lawyer who now resides in Singapore and runs a theatre company, was well-known to Sister Enda because she was such a high achiever.

She was junior head girl, school sports captain, school badminton player and Literary and Debating Society president.

But it would be as senior disciplinary prefect that Claire found herself in hot water with Sister Enda.

“I was in Form Five when one day a classmate ran away from home. We were so worried that another prefect and I left class without permission to go look for her.

“I even got dad to help to find her. She eventually came home but I had broken the rules – and since I was the prefect in charge of discipline, it was a very shameful thing.

“Sister Enda knew I had good intentions but she had no choice but to send me to detention.

I had to stand in front of the whole school and be publicly admonished.

“But I wasn’t traumatised, nor felt that I was being unfairly punished.

That was because Sister did it very kindly. It was discipline with compassion and firmness,” recounts Claire.

Sister Enda retired at age 61 in 1989. Beatrice remembers that it came as a shock to everyone.

“The government decided there would be no more mission school heads. Sister was given very short notice to retire.

I think she was quite stunned and we all cried at the news,” she adds.

Sister Enda left big shoes for the ones who came after her to fill. It might have been just a job for others, but for Sister Enda it was her mission in life.

“She became a nun to serve, to give to society. Education (to her) was not just textbooks but providing life-long tools for young people.

She took so much pride in her students,” says Claire.

That pride continued even after her students had left school. She would take great interest in the careers of many.

I for one was thrilled when I found out she regularly read my column.

When she took the trouble to attend my book launch in 2019, I was deeply honoured and grateful.

In the book, Nesmalar quotes Sister Enda:

“I feel blessed to have had this God-guided life.

You want to know why?

Primarily, it is joy. I constantly feel an irrepressible joy and a peace that defies explanation I might try to give.

It is not true that there are no aches and pains.

They are there.

Despite all of this, joy wells in me, almost as though it were an instinct.

This, to me, is an unmistakable sign of a successful life.”

Dear Sister Enda, amen to that! You succeeded beyond all expectations.

Thank you for loving and giving your life to Malaysia. We owe you a great debt. Rest in peace.

Addendum: I would like to make a suggestion for the authorities to consider. Please rename Jalan Changgai where Assunta secondary school is located to Jalan Sr Enda Ryan. It would be the perfect tribute to her and would keep her memory alive for decades to come. If we can name a road after another respected educator Prof Khoo Kay Kim, surely we can do the same for Sister Enda Ryan. What do you think, Assuntarians?

> The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.