Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St.
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Dear Friends,
Here is long one by Cornel De Freitas.
Hope that you follow Cornel´s example and cc me, so that the beautiful story of our school can get recorded in the Circular, and who knows a book might be published.
Would this be a challenge for you, Wayne Vincent Brown???
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From: corneldefreitas@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:32:34 -0500
Dear Eion: (It takes a few minutes to put the face to the name)
Many thanks for reaching out... no words could really express what an amazing feeling it is ... to finally be able to actually make contact ...like I said, there just aren't enough words to express my feelings about it!
I have been getting quite a bit of mail and doing my best to respond directly, often copying to Nigel Boos and to Ladislao Kertesz; I am so very appreciative of these guys.
I love them both for what they are doing for us, as well as the others who are re threading the fabric of friendship that has always tied us all together, some tears and also some rips, but I believe we have all grown up and matured, and come to realise what we all meant to each other.
If I could reach out to any brother that I may have hurt or ever offended and left without ever having the chance to make amends, to them, whomsoever "They" may be, my heartfelt "sorry" and please do not hesitate to reach out to me so I could finally express to them, on a one on one basis how I feel, so that they would realise that I care about every single one of them as I do for any of my natural brothers and sisters.
Next time, could you please let me know what picture I could recognise you in, (the Circulars have a number of them) your full name,, when you graduated and left the Mount and what you have been doing etc.etc...
I am so totally blown away that you remember all of that.
Believe me when I tell you, for the last 40-45 years, I have often thought about the cabin we all worked so hard to build, it was a damn good one too.
All the wood and galvanise we stole, even a mattress.
If I remember correctly, it was a two room- albeit small- but a lot of sweat went into the building of it.
I have such great memories of my life at the Mount with all of my 'brothers'.
That's what they all mean to me, and I mean this sincerely.
I know and realise that there were disagreements and misunderstandings, but then again, in any family of brothers and sisters, that happens.
But we all "grew up together" in close proximity, and as we moved forward and got a little older year after year the new younger 'brothers' would join us, and we would look out for them as any big brother would.
But I have always maintained that with all the ups and downs, good times and hard times, great times and even harsh or bad times, I am very proud to be a MOUNT boy!
I have two brothers and sisters, but because I was the eldest, and at the time they were a lot younger, their 'big' brother was away most of their lives, and did not grow up and 'bond' with them as most brothers and sisters do.
I was more or less a brother that would come home from away, spend some time and then leave again.
Even when I left the Mount, I didn't stay in Aruba for very long, because I left for the
I enrolled in the Delehanty Institute of Radio Television and Electronics and completed with a 4.0 average.
After that I went on to take Computer Programming at E.C.P.I. (the school was in the sub basement level of the
I went back to Aruba, and my father used his influence to get me a job with an accounting firm, where I worked for a year to gain some experience while I applied for Immigrant status in
When my papers got approved, I took off for
I have visited
The first time I went up, Cecil and a few of the boys were still there, of course, they were older and had moved forward a few grades, but It's been a long (very) long time since I've been back to Trinidad.
I believe this may have had a lot to do with my parents passing away and they always travelled to Trinidad to visit our family that live there and also on to
Sorry about the long history, but it helps shed some light on the story.
I believe it was my friend Jeremy du Barry that for some reason was told that I met my demise in, of all places, "
Even though Aruba and Curacao are sister islands along with Bonaire, (these three are often referred to as the A B C islands) Aruban people did not care too much for Curacao, and even though I have visited/passed through a few times for connections to other islands etc., I had no real reason to visit often.
The other 3 were St. Martin, Saba and
Saba is basically a mountain in the
For your information, Terence Ferreira, (do you know him?) is coming up for a visit in about a week.
Nigel and I plan to meet with him for a kind of mini reunion.
Write again and send some pictures if you have some from the 'old days at the MOUNT, I would love to see them.
You wouldn't happen to have one of the old "cabin" would you?
Take care, it was GREAT to hear from you, all the best to you and your loved ones for the new year.
GOD bless you and hope to hear from you soon again.
---By the way...Where do you live?
Cornel de Freitas ...
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Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:38:25 -0400
From: eion@accesswave.ca
Is this the "el
I heard you were dead man! so its real nice to see you are still around - another witness to the 'back to jail we go' years.
Remember the den we built up behind the scout house; let's see, it was Raymond deVerteuil, Phillip Laughlin, pin head, Christian Gurley, Cecil, ... can't remember all. perhaps also Bookie Deveau..
You would go to town on weekends and bring back all kinds of eats we were starving for at the mount, go to the den, eat, smoke cigarettes and talk shit.
you were one weird dude man.. ..
Do you ever see your country man Crofton Stroud?
He was a kind fella.
Eion O'Connor (Rab - Flaco to the Venezuelans)
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Cornel de Freitas
17 Jan
Hi Ladislao:
I found my school picture in the "Circular “
I spent quite a bit of time trying to locate the photographs I have during my time at MSB. and I couldn't find them, but I am sure with moving that they got displaced.
I am confident I will find them.
I do not have anything immediately that would permit any of my MSB brothers to recognise me.
I will find something, sooooon, I promise.
I have however found some that were taken while I was studying in
It is quite amazing how the memories just start to fade back in.
Some of them are quite interesting stories to recall.
I guess we all have a lot of great memories of that period of our lives.
Just so you know, thank you for sending some of the "circulars" that I missed.
I spent until 4:58 last night (actually until early this morning determined to find a clue somewhere in one of the "Circulars" to give you.
You do amazing work, are you the only one holding this "Circular/Association" together?
I cannot even start to imagine the amount of time that you have invested in this great work.
Kindly take a moment (when you do get one...) and let me know who are all involved.
Once again, I do apologise for my long-windedness, hope you don't mind too much, it means a lot to me.
I will try each time to pass on one of the little "memory/time capsules" that I have, for those that appreciate looking back.
Jeremy duBarry was always an amazing person, I guess hard to understand for a few at the time, nevertheless I believe he understood "Vooooosh!" better than most of us.
I am so very sorry to hear of the passing of Father Benedict. May GOD grant him eternal rest.
It is so sad for me that is passing happened at the time that I have been 'rediscovered', finding yourself and a connection to my old classmates, to learn that Father Benedict, our beloved Father Benedict "Voooosh!" has left us for his really bountiful reward (I am sure), in that place that Our Lord has prepared for him in heaven.
He was indeed a Great person, one to be admired.
It is now Saturday January 17, 2009.
I stopped typing the above message, and a lot has happened since I started it.
When you informed me that Nigel Boos lived near to me, I looked into it.
He does not actually live close, he is about 30 to 40 km in a town called ‘
Since Michael had to deliver a computer to a friend that he fixed for them, and since they lived reasonably close by, I decided to call Nigel and made arrangements to drop by for a ‘first’ visit.
Nigel thought it was a great idea, and that was a plan.
But here is the real surprise, our friend had moved and after consulting a map to get the correct and fastest way to get to our friends new address, he had the same street name and lived almost across from each other.
So we visited Nigel last night and talked and talked and reminisced and talked some more, it was a really happy visit.
His wife, Jackie, is the “Rembrandt” of cake decorating.
I have never before seen such talent.
She turns a decorated cake into such a beautiful masterpiece; it is truly got to be a real ‘mortal’ sin to cut into it!
He sent me a complete file that he had created called: “1070 Boys” – amazing stuff filled with pictures.
It is as close as I’ve ever come to time travel into my past.
Any way I am going to close now or this is going to be really old news if I wait another day,
GOD bless you and your loved ones,
Your brother in Christ,
Cornel
Hope to hear from you soon.
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from: Cornel de Freitas
Date: 21 November 2008 15:12
Dear Ladsislao:
Errol is my younger brother who lives in
My time at the Mount was from 1960 - 1966, the dates you were alluding to was before 1960.
Somewhere in a box I believe that I may still have some pictures during my time at the Mount.
I was involved in sports and I was also responsible for putting out the vestments for the priest in the Chapel for the mass etc.
If memory serves me right, I recollect some of monks that taught us at the time was Father Cuthbert, Fr. Augustine and I believe Fr. Bernard was the Head Master at the time and Fr.Eugene was the Dean.
I did not check my emails for a period of time and I do apologise for not getting back to you sooner.
I also had no idea that such a group/organisation existed.
You now have my email address so if you wish to continue an exchange, please feel free to do so.
Thanks for reaching out, I was pleasantly surprised.
Cornel
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Cornel de Freitas
24/11/2008
Hi Ladislao.
Thanks for responding so speedily, I was quite happy to hear back from you!
I recognise all of the faces and was good friends with a number of my 'brothers' in the photograph.
Really good friends with Richard Anderson and Jeffrey Camacho and his brother Cecil Camacho who also went to MSB.
So did Richard's younger brother Stephen, who also went to the
But I believe I was in a class ahead of this class.
No, my brother Errol did not attend MSB.
How did you get to know him?
I also remember the monk that took all of the school pictures.
I cannot remember his name but he was a 'science' teacher at the school.
I also took a lot of pictures while I was at MSB, a lot of them were in B&W, and I was also a member of the 'photography club' and did some of my own developing, and took part in athletics.
If memory serves me right, I won the trophy a few times.
I was in St. Lawrence as well as Richard and I believe so was Jeffrey.
They were both good friends and really good athletes themselves.
I have a lot of memories of 'The Abbey School', some good, some not so good, but I must say most are good, at least 90%. (Wish my grades were that high then)
Do you use messenger?
It was really nice hearing from you,
GOD bless U and yours, Cornel
p.s. I remember I used to have a nick-name at the mount...
Any pics of yourself/class?
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Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:21:23 -0400
From: kertesz11@gmail.com
Dear Cornel,
I left in 1960 December, remember that the graduation was in December.
Did your brother Errol, go to the school?? is so please FW the circular to him and to others that were ALUMNI.
Please make comments on the photo, I need you to write me on the possible whereabouts of your classmates.
God bless
Ladislao
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from: Cornel de Freitas
Date:28 November 2008 14:27
Hi Ladislao:
I am interested in finding out more about the "MSB" group/organisation.
Let me know some more details if you can, when it was founded number of members etc.
I did not know that there was a "chest" buried at 'White Stones'?
I remember making the trek up there once, it was quite a steep and difficult climb.
I also recall once when Fr.Eugene (the Dean at the time) walked down the road from the school to the corner and had some of the students collect all of the tennis shoes that were left in the road, by the boys that were 'helping themselves' to the mangoes.
Later that afternoon at bath time, he announced on the P.A. system, that any boys missing their tennis shoes could collect them at his office.
We know what that earned them later.
Any way, locking forward to hear from you again soon.
GOD bless,
Cornel
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Some more on Cornel De Freitas in a future issue.
So now you have all the exchanges and photos.
That is for now, till the next one
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Photos:
60CF0001CDFDM, Cornel de Freitas in Diego Martin
61CF0001CDFARUBA, Cornel de Freitas in
67CF1957CDFNY, Cornel de Freitas in NY studying electronics??
92CF0003CDFGRP, Cornel De Freitas cooking??
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