Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
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Dear Friends,
NEW comer Peter Alkins with regrettable news on John Alkins his brother.
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Sent: Sun 3/01/09 7:14 PM
Resp.: Re. Circular The Abbey School MSB
Ladislao,
I went to Mount for a couple years ..
the prep years only .. 1960 - 1962.
I was in class with Norman Tang, Brian Chen, Steve Anderson ...
My older brother John, also went to Mount ... likely 1956 - 1963.
He passed away in 2000.
Regards,
Peter
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From: Glen Mckoy [mailto:mckoy43glen@hotmail.com]
Sent: Jueves, 03 de Abril de 2008 05:22 a.m.
Subject: RE: The Grotto in the
Oh my God, Nigel ,
what a true story, of true knights, and walking in the light, I remember that feeling , of true love of the maker.
Only when, I was very young and pure, your story is such a journey of life, and finds one self, surrounded by questions or who are you.??
And then living those convictions.
These things you did, the hard decisions you made, to commit yourself, a lad so young, and so mature.
Well, Nigel, when I read your stories, I wonder, why are you holding back all this good stuff from us.??
These are the stories, that CheChe want, for the chronicles.
And yes, I am aware of all the spots you spoke of, and passed them many times, in our travel thru those magical woods.
Nigel I will forward this to CheChe. and other brothers, as I think, this story must be shared.
Thank you, for letting us into your soul,
Love Glen.
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CC: koen@sr.net; jankoenraadt@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 23:16:45 -0400
What a great story, Glen.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
I too have a story like that, but we didn't build a den.
We built a grotto - in honour of Our Blessed Mother, Mary.
I must have been a devout kid, or something.
There were three of us - Lawrence Scott, Thijs Koenraadt (the older brother of Jan), and myself.
Jan was a Surinamese boy who became a monk at
I was just a Trinidadian kid with no particular desire to go into the religious life.
That came later.
But it probably was as a result of our common interest in religion that we were thrown together.
There is a track leading from the NW corner of the basketball court.
It leads slowly downwards at an angle, and is dug into the side of the hill.
Within 400 yards or so from the School, one suddenly enters a magical world of bush and wildlife.
The sounds of the School disappear and is replaced by the silence of the forest and the occasional sound of chirping birds.
One comes across a small shrine, with a statue of Mary set into a little nook of a concrete structure built by some long-forgotten monk, perhaps.
We would sometimes go for walks along this track, and talk about this and that.
We'd come across the tiny reservoir where, we were told, the monks used to keep an alligator.
This was the tiny stream which provided the water supply for both the School as well as the Monastery, and it is still a mystery to me that such a small dam could have supplied all our needs.
Occasionally, yes, there was a water shortage, and on those days, truck-borne water would be sent up to us from
Fun and games!
Along one stretch of the track, we would come across a concreted section supported by a metal sub-structure, so far as I can remember, which, we were told, was erected by the original Benedictine monks as a way to get down from their mountaintop retreat to the village below, to celebrate Holy Mass or to shop.
The story goes that a mule / donkey carrying a monk panicked when crossing this strange bridge and threw the hapless fellow to his death in the ravine below.
Some distance beyond the concrete "bridge" we came across a wonderful place, where one could imagine miracles could take place.
It was quite damp, and there were lots of dead leaves lying everywhere, atop a rock-strewn natural forest "shelf".
But the best feature of the spot was a tiny waterfall, with a gently trickle of water which flowed down a sloping black rock face, about eight feet long, and ending in a 3' deep rocky pool filled with more dead leaves.
We were intrigued with the place, and we determined that we would make it a pet project of our own.
From then on, whenever we could spare the time, we'd hike into the forest and move rocks around. scrape away leaves, move branches, cut out small bushes growing among the rocks, clean the rocky pool, and so on.
We worked at it for a number of weeks, and eventually, we thought we had prepared the place well enough to be able to place a statue of the Blessed Virgin at the top of the tiny waterfall.
Somehow we obtained a statue and Thijs, I believe, asked Fr. Peter O.S.B., a very holy man we all respected, to come with us to bless "our" grotto.
I was not there the day that Fr. Peter came, and I cannot now remember how come that happened.
I was assured, however, that he did come, he did bless, he did NOT fall into the water.
From that day on, I believe I made only one more trip to the spot.
This was just before I received news of my father's death in
I suppose that some of the boys who followed me at MSB must have seen the grotto in the years that followed.
For all I know it's still there.
Lawrence Scott left the monastery and has become a writer.
Thijs Koenraadt (Brother Alphonse) was recalled to
He married Lucy La Rose in August 1969. In 1970 they had a son Paul and in 1972 a daughter Susan.
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From: Chandra R. Teelucksingh
Date: 8/14/2007 9:13:21 AM
Neil,
Sorry to hear about Pascal.
I understand that Fr. Odo is quite ill.
He was on holiday in
I'll try and get some more info and advise l8r today.
Chandra
----- Original Message --------------------------------------------------------.
From: nchacha57@aol.com
To: crt@tstt.net.tt
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 5:17 PM
Chandra,
I just got a call from Winston Ramsahai,
Pascal Bharat died over the weekend and will be cremated tomorrow.
Hit me back.
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Chandra Teelucksingh
Thursday, January 15, 2009 3:51:04 PM
Hi Ladislao,
Yes, I am Abbey Alumni, as are four of my brothers before me, Keith (Bunny), Christopher, Allan and Dave.
I was at Abbey from 1968 (in the then newly formed Prep class) until form 5.
You will get my e-mail address from this transmission.
I have been chatting with Paul Quesnel and he thinks that the Alumni association need support.
If we can harness the collective talents of the old boys, we are indeed a force.
Years ago, I met a gentleman in
He also told us that the Abbey Alumni in
Regards
Chandra
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From: "Herman Verkruissen"
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 22:56:01 -0500 (Central Standard Time)
Hello Mr Coscarart.
My name is Herman Verkruissen, I just found out myself about the web site from the abbey in
And I saw that you are living in
I did' finish school I went in 1960 and 1961 when my father told me that we were moving to
I am from
We left
I did found a picture of me on the site.
www.theabbeyschool.com/MSBBiography/htm go to class photos and scroll down to class of 1966 ( Taken earlier ) top row I am the 3rd one from the right with light hair.
That was a surprise for me.
Anyway let me know if you received my e-mail maybe one day we can meet and talk about the school.
Since I saw the web site I have been putting a book together with every thing I can find.
Anyway take.
Herman Verkruissen
(Please send me a copy, ed.)
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From: Salvador Coscarart
Date: 2/19/2005 4:42:27 PM
From: "Herman"
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 09:20:25 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
Mr Coscarart,
Good to hear from you I have not forgotten you.
I have been very busy with my son in law at his new home but I like to meet you one day just to talk about the school and what has changed.
I will get in touch with you soon.
As you know I work for Cox Communications in
Well take care will talk soon.
-------Original Message----------------------------------------------------.
From: Salvador Coscarart
Date: 02/18/05 22:31:10
Hello Mr.Herman,
How are you , my name is Salvador Coscarart I also went to the
I live here in
Actually the outskirts of Lafayette.by sunset.
Anyway just wanted to drop a few lines and may be we can meet to chat about the good old days back at
I have photos I took when I went in 2004 to the first school reunion.
Feel free to call anytime .
Abbey old boy
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From: Herman
Date: 4/3/ 12:22:13 AM
Lazslo,
Sorry my friend I did receive it.
Good job.
I don't know if
Let me see if I can send them to you I would like to post them and see if anybody knows them.
They were with me in 1961, at the Abby.
Thanks.
Herman.
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From: Herman Verkruissen |
Date: 10/23/ 9:07:41 PM
Dear Lazslo.
My friend I hope you are doing fine am sorry I have not written you more often but hang in there am going to write you soon again.
Since the storm has hit
Then the company called me to come back to Lake Charles to start getting supplier's to rebuild the cable system as you know am the Warehouse Specialist for Cox Communications Cable TV.
We had over 18000 drops came down from the houses and about 30 miles of main cable broke from the poles from the report we had a lot of damage.
But we have rebuild the system in 30 days and have about 95% of the people back on watching TV.
I have been working 21 days straight 9 to 10 hrs a day.
The two pictures if any body know were they are let me know or e-mail me at hccmv8@cox.net
I would appreciate this.
Thanks
Herman Verkruissen
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I hope that I am doing all right, sometimes I feel that I am repeating photos and emails, please forgive me if I do.
Ladislao Kertesz Editor
So now you have all the exchange and photos.
That is for now, till the next one
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67JK0001EDIMSB, Virgin in the Grotto.
60HV0001UNKNOWN, Photo by Herman Verkruissen
60VH0002UNKNOWN, Photo by Herman Verkruissen
03MD0002REUNION2003, The clergy´s table.
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