In the morning, we headed off to St Leonard’s College where I used to teach five years ago when James and I lived there. The school have continued to support us over the years and even did some fundraising for our appeal a few months ago. They had a purple ribbon day (Oli’s fave colour) and pyjama day and managed to raise several hundred dollars.  The students also passed on many well wishes to Olivia through cards and drawings. As well as to catch up with my ex-colleagues, we wanted to pass on our personal thanks to everyone there.
 
On our arrival during recess, Olivia was mobbed by many of the school’s younger students. It was hilarious! It was like she was a celebrity! Many of the students handed her cards and drawings they had made for her, as well as presents or other things they had made. It was just gorgeous and we were incredibly touched by their generosity and thoughtfulness. Olivia loved the attention.
 
Our sincere thanks goes to Amanda for taking the time to walk us through the school to visit the staff and students. She has also been one of our most avid supporters. We also met the lovely Year 10 student who initiated the fundraising event. Some other Year 10 students also gave us some money they had raised through selling milkshakes and smoothies in their business studies. They had the option of using the money to buy something special for their common room or to donate it to charity and they chose to donate it to Olivia’s appeal. Wow! We are just so deeply humbled by all of these kind acts of generosity.
 
All of the students we met at St Leonard’s showed so much compassion towards Olivia and our family. They were all thrilled to see her and passed on all of their very best wishes. They are all such beautiful students and they have such a strong community spirit. Going back to St Leonard’s made me realize how fortunate I was to have worked there.
 
We spent some time in the Year 1 classroom where Olivia and Sarah did some drawings. They had an absolute ball with the students.
 
We had to leave after lunch. Olivia was so disappointed as she said she wanted to go and play with the kids.   She then asked me when she could play with them again. She had a fantastic time. Thanks again to everyone for making us feel so welcome.
 
We then headed over to Emily’s (another ex-colleague) place for afternoon tea. We had a great time – there was a lot of catching up to do. Olivia and Sarah had a lovely time catching up with Emily’s three gorgeous daughters who were similar ages to our girls.
 
We then moved onto Helen and James’ place for dinner where we caught up with Tim (my old St Leonard’s teaching partner). We had a lovely time but it all went too quickly. We wish we’d had more time in Melbourne so that we didn’t have to cram in all of our catch ups.
 
The girls were fairly exhausted by the end of the day, to say the least.