Immaculata High School celebrates 90th anniversary

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When Abby Pundyk graduated from Immaculata High School in 1935, she thought she was done with formal education. Her father had other ideas.

“He said ‘No way, with your mind you are going to stay in school’,” said Abby’s son, Robert Pundyk.

His mother was one of the early graduates of Immaculata High School, which opened on Bronson Avenue in 1928 as a high school for girls. She went on to study nursing, a profession she practised both in the hospital and, informally, on the many neighbours who knocked on her door in need of help in the days before universal health care, said Robert.

“My mom was like the local clinic on the street for people who couldn’t afford the doctor. She was an excellent nurse. It was always great to be sick in our house.”

Blessed with an almost photographic memory, she first studied to become a teacher, but it wasn’t a good fit. “She had no patience, except for when she is with patients,” he said.

Abby Pundyk, now 102, lives in St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa. She suffers from dementia, said her son, but still has flashes of the keen memory she had when she was younger.

She won’t be attending the 90^th anniversary celebrations for her old high school but still retains some surprising details of her years there.

Recently, her granddaughter asked her about Immaculata. Abby Pundyk came up with names of some of her teachers and then began singing the school song, 83 years after she last sang it in school.

Immaculata’s 90^th anniversary celebrations take place Friday through Sunday and include a mass at the original site at 211 Bronson Ave., celebrated by a graduate of the high school.

For more information: sites.google.com/ocsb.ca/immaculata90thcelebration/home