Vale Mrs Kearney

I went to the memorial yesterday for my high school teacher, Barbara Kearney. She taught me German throughout high school, and remarkably, she agreed to an audacious plan that saw three of us travel to Germany with her. She was 43; we were 17.

The short story is that we decided to raise our own funds to finance the trip. It was an extraordinary undertaking for our small group—quite revolutionary for the time as we were public school kids, and none of us had wealthy parents —and it allowed us to experience incredible things, including seeing the Berlin Wall while it still stood.

I spoke briefly at the memorial, remembering her profound love of languages and travel, and the way she inspired us. I also highlighted the strong female role model she was for my classmates Louise and Amanda, and how remarkable it was that she took on such immense responsibility for us.

I was deeply touched when her niece handed me the album of photographs from our adventure. I spent last night reading through her extensive diary of the trip, which made me both laugh and cry. A truly great woman, fondly remembered.

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Car washes, a walkathon, confectionery sales and garage sales, the group had raised the $4000 necessary for the fares.

Amanda, James and Louise, who all are 17, also have worked hard at casual jobs in their spare time to raise their spending money.

The group said that, at first, the rest of the school had been pessimistic about the project and their success had surprised many people.

For the students, it will be their first trip to Germany. Mrs Kearney was last there 20 years ago.

Neither generation is daunted by the idea of spending one month of their holidays together and say their relationship is more relaxed then many between teacher and students.

They have spent much of their weekend time together working on fund-raising projects.

The group will travel by public transport in Germany and stay at youth hostels.

Mrs. Kearney said only one New South Wales school had undertaken such a trip before and it hired its own bus and pre-booked its motels.

“Which means you aren’t mixing with Germans,” Mrs. Kearney said.

She said the three students who had survived to the end were relevant and “nice kids.”

“Come and see us when we get back,” she said. “You’ll find out whether they dumped me at some youth hostel.”