Nova Scotia·NewA Fall River, N.S., woman has recently returned home after travelling to England to meet up with her elementary school classmates, 75 years after leaving the school.Classmates from school near Manchester, England, have kept in touch through video callsEmma Davie · CBC News · Posted: Oct 20, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 37 minutes agoNova Scotia woman attends 75th elementary school reunionElizabeth Myers left Urmston Primary School near Manchester, England, in 1950. This September, she returned to the school to meet up with her classmates for the first time in 75 years. The CBC’s Emma Davie reports.When Elizabeth Myers arrived at her old elementary school on Sept. 23, she was about to do something that not many people get to experience — meet up with her classmates from 75 years ago.“I’ve come back a different person,” Myers said at her home in Fall River, N.S., a few days after returning from her trip to England. “It’s heartwarming, for me it was life-changing.”She was one of nine classmates from the 1950 graduating class of Urmston Primary School near Manchester who were able to return earlier this fall. And a lot has changed in the 75 years since they graduated.When Myers first started at the school in 1944, the country was still embroiled in the Second World War. “There was rationing, air raid shelters, bombs dropping, all of those kinds of things happening as young people,” she said. “We didn’t know any different, that was just life.”The Urmston class of 1950. Elizabeth Myers is in the third row, second from the right. (Submitted by Elizabeth Myers)When the war ended in September 1945, Myers said, “everything changed and just got better and better and better.” The rationing slowed down and “people got on with their lives in a more positive way.”Myers grew up in a nearby town called Flixton, where she lived until moving to London for a job when she was 20. She met her future husband and after their first child was born, they decided to move to Canada. In November 1964, the family arrived in Toronto.Despite the ocean separating some of them, the school group has kept in contact online over the last few years, meeting up virtually once a month. But as they approached the 75th anniversary of their departure from primary school, they decided it was time to go back.Classmates travelled from Canada, Spain and throughout the U.K. for the reunion. (Submitted by Steve Hewitt)Myers travelled from Canada, and she said other classmates came from Spain and throughout the United Kingdom to attend.“We’ve all aged considerably,” Myers said with a laugh, adding that there was a lot of hugging that day.“Humour is a big part of it … We can laugh about old times, obviously, and we can laugh about the fact that we are very old and facing a very fragile future. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but somehow we’re able to make light of it all.”During their visit, the group also met up with a class of 11-year-old Urmston students. Myers said it was a special experience to be able to connect with another generation, who are “almost like our great-grandchildren.”“We each told our individual stories briefly, all nine of us, and the children asked lots and lots of really good questions,” she said.She reminisced about a game they used to play called “curb or wall,” where the kids would race to either the curb or the wall. On one particular occasion, Myers was running toward the wall and couldn’t stop herself — she ran straight into it and had to be taken to hospital for stitches. She still has the scar on her head all these years later.Elizabeth Myers was one of nine classmates who attended the reunion at Urmston Primary School near Manchester. (BBC North West Tonight)Myers said she was grateful for the chance to reunite with her school playmates. “Life throws all kinds of punches at you as it travels along. And I feel very fortunate, as they do, to still be here … still of sound mind and curious.”Myers said the group has made plans to meet up again in person in three years. But for now, they’ll keep up their monthly video calls.“I’m so glad that this has happened, to know that this is possible as an aging person,” she said. “And I would recommend to anybody, if given the chance, go find your old elementary school friends.”MORE TOP STORIESABOUT THE AUTHOREmma Davie is a video producer in Halifax. She loves telling stories from people in the Maritimes. You can reach her at emma.davie@cbc.ca.With files from Meig Campbell
This Fall River, N.S., woman met up with her elementary school classmates 75 years later
