No Mountain Too High

Not long ago, I was asked to interview a Law Society member who stood out for earning a Lifelong Learner Award. The Lifelong Learner Awards is intended to recognise individual adult learners who have made positive changes in their lives through lifelong learning and who are an inspiration to non-learners.

Questions ran through my mind. Why would someone past 50 pursue the study of law; and what was the driving force that enabled her to persevere and be called to the English Bar at 58; then go through the Singapore Practical Law Course and be called to the Bar at the age of 60? I had my chance to have all my questions answered when I finally got to meet Mary Magdeline Pereira. Since our meeting, Mary has given me a new perspective of life and has become a friend and an inspiration, and the following is her story.

The Japanese blitz hit Singapore on 21 January 1942. The shock brought Mary into the world, premature at minutes past midnight, in an air-raid shelter. It was just hours after her father, a graduate from Madras University and a teacher at St. Anthony’s Boys’ School, was killed while on duty with Singapore’s first Volunteer Corps.

Suddenly, at age 26, Mary’s mother was left widowed with three children. Their Chay Yan Street flat was damaged due to the blitz. She chose to stay in Singapore, instead of accepting her father-in-law’s one-way ticket to Anjengo in India, where she owned land, property and crops.

Mary and her family became homeless wanderers, till her mother applied her educational qualifications from Holy Cross Convent, Tutocorin in Tamil Nadu and secured a teaching post. In 1947, the family re-located to a flat at Owen Road and there Mary’s mother turned tailor. Today, this same flat is still Mary’s home. When Mary was 10 her mother remarried. Her stepfather, a Sri Lankan, was a teacher and the grandson of an Anglican Pastor. While Mary delighted in her younger half-brother, she matured under the eyes of her two elder brothers.

Not surprisingly, Mary followed her mother’s earlier footsteps and became a  full-time teacher in 1960. The following years saw her undergoing training at  the Teachers’ Training College (‘TTC’) during the other half of the day when her teaching duties were over. Restless for improvement, while at the TTC, she studied four principal level subjects at night, attending Adult Education classes seven days a week for two years running.

Edwin Thumboo, Emeritus Professor of NUS, was Mary’s English teacher and her motivator as he showed his students how despite failures, he moved on. Another source of inspiration was her GP teacher Mohan Singh, who introduced the class to Bertrand Russell and enlivened every lesson. Mary passed her ‘A’ levels, gained an increment and taught at Cedar Girls’ Secondary for 10 years.

Those were the roaring 60s; and Mary enjoyed every aspect of nightlife in those days. Nearly every Saturday, after her friends dropped her off after a night in the town, she still had energy to slip out of her dancing shoes and take her grandmother (‘amama’) for 6am mass. Amama loved to go to church and Mary loved her company. Amama’s two brothers were priests and so too was Mary’s granduncle, who was a Monsignor.

When she was 24, Mary applied to enter the Singapore University and was rejected. She was advised to resign from her teaching post and re-apply. Seeing her predicament, Ian, her boyfriend, proposed marriage and financial support thereafter. She turned down his offer. Her mother suggested that she read law in England. As Mary had no means to do so, she continued teaching. However, this was a significant moment in her life as it was then that Mary first started nurturing the dream of becoming a lawyer.

She underwent training at the Police Academy and graduated a Police Cadet Inspector. She then trained the students in the Cadet Corps in drill, unarmed combat, revolver shooting, and even a bit of law, participating in holiday camps and National Day Parades.

Mary was selected and trained for the first group of Educational Television teachers, and later was paid to write scripts and teachers’ notes for Geography, which were televised in a series.

Four years later, she married Ian, who by then was in Malaysia and working as a journalist. She later joined him in Kuala Lumpur. There, they had their third child. In KL, Mary taught at Garden School, a prestigious international school, for 10 years.

However, her children in Singapore needed her and she came back. In 1985 she sought in vain for a regular teaching post, and instead was advised to get a degree. Her 25 years of teaching experience were not recognised. Instead, she accepted a downgraded daily-rated relief teacher’s post at $37.00 a day, minus benefits, no weekend pay, no holiday pay and no bonus. For the next 10 years she moved from a primary school to a school for spastic children, and lastly taught the sick and terminally ill children at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

By the late 80s, Mary could not stretch the weakening Malaysian Ringgit. Not to be defeated, she looked for other avenues. She studied nutrition, went into sales and clinched the silver medal from New Image for retail sales.

To make ends meet, Mary took up an offer to teach part-time at the Singapore Institute of Commerce. At the Institute, there were law classes. She spoke to Mrs Paniker, who ran the Institute, of her dream to read law. Mrs Paniker encouraged Mary to attend the law classes free of charge.

Mary next decided to drop sales and pursue her studies. She passed her Intermediate University of London’s external degree. New rulings, however, were passed, one being that external degree holders had to complete their studies before 1 January 1997 for their degree to be recognised.

Mary could cope with her studies, but not the deadline. She held two jobs, was a homemaker, and even though her 80-year-old mother helped a lot, the pressure was overwhelming. She decided to give up her studies. However, her family urged her to go abroad to study and fulfil her dreams. With Ian’s help, Mary entered the University of Newcastle’s School of Law, where her lecturers, staff, students and the church warmed her heart and made up for the cold weather.

Unfortunately, while in Newcastle, Mary’s kidney failed her. That summer she returned to Singapore and had open surgery. Her surgeon and friends advised her to drop her studies, while her mother offered to go and nurse her. But Mary would have none of that. Two weeks later, Ian saw her off in a wheelchair.

While at Newcastle, the late Agnes Sumner (Sting’s grandmother) became an inspiration and friend to Mary. At 92, Agnes lived by herself in a Council flat and was writing her autobiography and zipping across continents. After Mary’s operation, she rang up from Newcastle and said, ‘I’ve had masses said and lit candles for you. When will you be back?’ Agnes, dressed in silk and sequins, armed with a bottle of champagne, climbed two flights of stairs for Mary’s farewell party, after just having had two bypass operations, and ignoring Mary’s pleas to rest.

Mary graduated with Second Class Honours in 1996 and topped the list for Criminology.

Next, Mary enrolled to do the Bar. Time management was of the essence. She lived in the east and had to juggle travelling, chores and studies. Daily lectures were held in the west. She carried out research at Lincoln’s Inn Library. She wined and dined with her sponsor, Robert Wright QC at Lincoln’s Inn and at the Lodges.

It was during one trip to classes that Mary slipped on ice and sprained her ankle badly. This set her back with her studies and it took a while to catch up.

She completed a mini-pupillage with a firm in London and found attending cases at the Old Bailey more interesting than those at various Sub-Courts around London. As Christmas neared, Mary felt homesick and returned home. That year, she failed her Bar examinations.

By this time, Mary’s strength and perseverance had run out. She returned to relief teaching, but this time was paid $200.00 a day, due to her LLB and her prior years of service as a teacher.

In mid-1997, Mary became a volunteer with the Singapore After Care Association and underwent training, then facilitated inmates’ reunion with their families upon their release to help them fit back into society. Currently, she serves the Roman Catholic Prison Ministry.

On 23 June 1999, Mary’s mother was hit by a van. After nearly two months of battling for her life, she passed away, the doctor said, ‘peacefully’, on the night of 15 August. This was a turning point in Mary’s life.

Mary’s school principal offered her a three-year teaching contract at a salary of $200 plus a day. She politely turned down the offer, picked up her courage and set off for London once more, clinging to faith, and the legacy her mother left her.

Mary was finally called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn on 12 October 2000 and a second time on 10 April 2002 in the Supreme Court of Singapore. Heaven smiled, as the inner-city ‘tailor’s daughter’ from Little India realised her dream, at the tender age of 60.

For Mary, every day is a learning experience and it was deservedly so that she was awarded the Lifelong Learner Award in 2003.

Today, Mary practises at M/s Peter Low Tang & Belinda Ang. When asked what advice she would like to share with others, she says belief in self comes first; peace with all second; and third, a passion for the job, application of skills, looking at issues in dispute, the feasibility to settle, and otherwise build the case with proper backing. Always conduct research and it is prudent to seek advice from senior lawyers, who do kindly give their time when asked.

Mary’s motto in life is to cultivate a free spirit and to be open to people. This comes through constant self-analysis and accountability. She believes in tracing the root cause of negative emotions and applying religious beliefs, meditation and/or any method to expel them. Problems are part of life with no ready answers, but a positive mental attitude helps synchronise the factors and direct further action to obtain that freedom.

In work, problems in court have taught Mary to check that all the relevant papers are filed and served on time, to clarify all doubts, and understand her clients’ instructions.

Mary faces challenges head-on. She learnt that to practise law effectively, she needed the right tools, so she completed a course in e-filing with the Singapore Academy of Law. She also entered the 5km cross-country marathon at the Bench and Bar Games in Kuantan, Malaysia this year, and in preparation, joined the Safra Town Club for daily training, to build up her stamina. Mary was surprised to be the only representative for Singapore; nonetheless, she completed the run within 50 minutes.

Mary didn’t win that particular race, yet the Malaysians cheered her, and she felt a winner. She recounted to me her days at inter-school relays for CHIJ (town) at Farrer Park Cinder Track Stadium, and inter-school hockey tournaments, the practices, games and sports at Girls’ Sports’ Club and Ceylon Sports’ Club.

Mary’s pursuit to be a lawyer did not hinder her from performing her motherly duties towards her children. Rather she has been an exemplary figure to her children through her zest for life and her thirst for knowledge. Today, her children have followed their dreams and are well set in life.

To me, Mary Magdeline Pereira is an inspiration and a shining example that no mountain is too high to climb, where there is a will.

Vimala Chandrarajan

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