I first met Constance when I went to collect her at Nairobi airport on January 4th, 1964. We had been waiting for the teacher who was coming from Ireland to teach in Kianda Secretarial College and I wondered what she would be like. Two years earlier, with the encouragement of Opus Dei's founder, we had started Kianda, the first inter-racial college for girls in Kenya. Now, on that bright morning, I encountered for the first time the deep blue eyes of Constance Gillan. They seemed to reflect the deep blue sea of her early years on Inis Oírr.
Constance was a born teacher. She riveted the students with those steady eyes that could inspire fear - until you got to know her. At other times they sparkled with humour. She brought great fun into the staff room with her dry wit and her capacity to enjoy a good joke.
Constance was determined that every one of her students should succeed. Many remember how she would declare on the first day of term: "In this shorthand class, everyone is expected to achieve this speed by the end of term. Anyone not prepared to make the effort to do so should leave now." She did not put up with mediocrity, with the result that her students did well not only in the classroom, but also in life.
She was concerned about her students as persons, not just as exam candidates. She followed them afterwards, continuing to take great interest in their human and spiritual welfare and their different paths in life. How often I found her knitting bootees for the new-born baby of a former Kianda student! As a result, Constance became a beloved institution at Kianda, so that when I meet past students they invariably ask: "How's Kianda?" followed by "And how's Miss Gillan?" It's not surprising that so many of them turned up for her funeral, including Christine Kenyatta, one of her early pupils, and the daughter of Jomo Kenyatta, the country's first president.
The apartment where she lived was open to all. There she gave extra tuition to past students who wanted to take the teachers' diploma exams. At other times students came to share a disappointment or a joy. More than one bride-to-be came in search of last-minute advice.
Wherever she was, Constance raised people's spirits by her positive outlook on people and events. You could count on her support. She saw her commitment to Opus Dei as a call to live her life for God and others.
The success of Kianda owes much to this wonderful woman who was 87 when she died on July 6th. She is survived by her sister, Eithne Bradley, and her brother Pat.
O.M.