Veteran teacher Mrs Henderson passes away in Karachi

Veteran teacher at St Patrick's School Yolande Henderson passed away on Saturday morning in Karachi.

"Mrs Henderson departed from this world this morning, December 5 in Karachi. A sad day for all of us. Please remember her in your prayers," a post on her Facebook page said.

Mrs Yolande Henderson, 86, taught for over 60 years. After graduating from St Joseph’s College, Mrs Henderson joined St Patrick’s School as an English literature and language teacher in 1954 and never looked back.



She spent 34 years at St Patrick's and was the headmistress of the school's O’ Levels section from 1991 to 2006. Due to the deterioration of her health, she left the school in 2006 but continued to give tuitions at her home.

When her family moved to Pakistan from Goa in 1950, Mrs Henderson wasn’t happy with the move. Later though, she came to believe in the Pakistani dream and all that it represented. “I came from a family of doctors and, in order to break the mould, I became a teacher,” she said, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “I didn’t become a teacher because everyone else [in my community] was doing it, I became one because I loved to teach,” she said. This love for teaching seems to have slowly disappeared from today’s educators. Today, everyone is out to make a fast buck, she felt.