The Life of Jane - Chapter Six

                                Chapter Six - To London

     One early morning in December 1958 Jane walked down the hall of the first floor of the arts building, on her way to a class. It was here in this scruffy building that she took many of her classes. She scanned the bulletin board near the entrance, and there pinned to it, was a notice that caught her eye. "Are you a student from New Brunswick and are you going to graduate  from the faculty of arts?" it asked. "You may be eligible for the Beaverbook Scholarship for graduate students."
     Jane was interested.Here, was a way to leave Canada and get another degree. The poster left a phone number and an address that she wrote down. She found out later that the scholarship was awarded every year to an oustanding student from New Brunswick.
    The winner could go to a university ouside Canada and stay in a  country and get an advanced degree. All fees were paid and so were most other expenses. "Holy Hanna," Jane told her father when she phoned home on one of her rare long distance calls a few weeks after seeing the notice. "This would be great for me if I won. Going to London, England to study would be fantastic."
     Jane wanted to go to England, a place that she had only stayed in for a few months, more than ten years ago. Also she was eager to continue her studies in English.
    Lord Beaverbrook, New Brunswick-born multimilliionaire, born Max Aitken, had made a fortune in Canada, and then England. He was an intimate of Winston Churchill, and had served in Churchill's wartime cabinet. But though like Jane, he admired the English, he didn't forget his native New Brunswick. He set up his scholarship as a way of paying back his place of birth.
   In June of 1959, Jane Sinclair, sat in a big crowd of graduates in an open air stadium,wearing a mortar board and a black academic gown. She walked under a warm spring sun,up to a stage where she received her arts degree from some notable. Her father and mother had travelled up to Montreal for the occasion, as had her sister Beatrice.
     "Well Jane, you're out in the big world now,"her father said after the ceremonies were over. "What're you going to do now?" Doctor Sinclair was stilll slaving away at his administrative job.
    "I think I'm going to keep going to school," Jane said as she and her family stood in the middle of a crowd of young graduates and their middle aged parents and relatives. "I'd like to go to London." She winked to Beatrice as she said this. Her sister was studying genetics in New York City.
    Jane was hoping that  she could win a Beaverbrook scholarship and go to London to study for a graduate degree. Who knows, she thought, maybe dreams do come true. Jane  had graduated with a  first class honours English degree. Now she had a Bachelor of Arts. But Jane was aiming even higher.