Chapter 27: The Clarissa Liddington Memorial Scholarship

Rather than disturb him at home that evening, I called Will after I got in from my nine o’clock lecture on Thursday morning. I’d thought about Imogen and Mark’s idea a lot in the meantime and explained it to him in as much detail as I could.

“That’s a very good idea, Paul. Brilliant, in fact. And I’m ashamed I didn’t think of it myself.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I’ve been speaking to Christine—Clarissa’s mom—for about a year about how she can use the money Clarissa left her to benefit the community. Andy has already made sure she was well looked after and could live quite comfortably for the rest of her life, so she really doesn’t need this extra money and wants to do something good with it.

“We’ve been tossing ideas back and forth for months and gotten nowhere. Up to now we’ve looked at grants to the school or to local clubs—for new facilities and the like. But nothing we came up with felt right. I mean, a bench in the park with Clarissa’s name on it? That’s not enough, is it? But this ... This is brilliant and it’s perfect. How did you come up with it—if you don’t mind me asking?”

I explained about Alannah and how she had refused my help and then how Imogen and Mark had suggested the Scholarship as a way help not just Alannah, but lots of people from Micester High.

“Okay, so this is a way to help out a friend in the first instance. That’s fine. Look, I’ll need to talk to some people—Christine, obviously. If this award is going to be in Clarissa’s name, then she’ll want to be involved, I have no doubt about that. But I also want to speak to our Charity Law expert here—Melissa Yelland is her name and she’s an exceptionally good lawyer. I’m pretty sure we can set things up quite quickly, but we’ll need to make sure that making the award retrospectively doesn’t break any rules.”

“Okay—but I really want to include every year from my mine and Clarissa’s onwards.”

“Is that so you can include your friend Lisa?”

I paused. “Honestly, I hadn’t even thought of that. I just think to do it from the year Clarissa would have gone to university seems appropriate.”

“But you’d planned a gap year, hadn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but ... You know.”

“Yes, I think I understand. Okay, leave it with me. I’ll come back to you as soon as I can, but it will probably be tomorrow now. I can speak with Melissa now, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get hold of Christine until this evening.”

“Okay. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

I didn’t have to wait until Friday to hear from Will. He sent me a text message just after lunch saying he’d been able to speak to Christine and asking if it would be okay if the two of them came over to speak to me about it that evening.

Naturally, I said yes.

The doorbell rang shortly after six.

“Will, come in. Come in. Mrs Liddington—”

“Chrissy,” she said with a stern look that quickly changed to a smile.

I nodded. “Chrissy. Come in. Come in. Go through to the lounge. Can I get you a drink or anything?”

“Oh, a coffee would be lovely,” Chrissy said. “Black, no sugar.”

“Same,” said Will. “Thank you.”

They went to sit in the lounge while I bustled into the kitchen to pour some coffee—we always seemed to have a recently made pot sitting in the machine in our house and I honestly don’t know which of my three housemates drank the most. I just know it wasn’t me.

I put three cups on a tray along with a plate of chocolate biscuits and carried them through. Will and Chrissy were sitting on the sofa opposite the fireplace. I took one of the two armchairs.

“Paul, how are you?” Chrissy said. “The last time I saw you...” She left the circumstances unsaid.

I nodded. “Yeah ... I wasn’t in a good place ... Mentally and emotionally, I mean. But ... I’m okay. I’m doing okay. I’m ... getting there.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” She paused. “Have you ... Have you been to see her since that day?”

I smiled sadly and shook my head. “No. I ... I haven’t felt the need.” I took a breath. “Riss took me to see my parents once—on their anniversary, just after my birthday. I hadn’t been very pleasant that week and when she found out why, she took me to see them. Told me to talk to them. I’m glad she did because it’s something I’d needed to do for a long time. And it made me realise something that I then told Riss. I said that as long as they are in here—” I put my finger against my temple. “As long as I remember the good times we had together, and that as long as they are in here—” I put my hand on my chest. “As long as I hold on to the love I had for them, then there was no need to visit them in person because they’d always be with me anyway.

“And it’s the same with Riss.”

Chrissy nodded but didn’t say anything. She looked like she was fighting back some tears. I know I was.

“Well,” said Will after a short pause, “It is Clarissa’s memory that brings us here, isn’t it? As I said to you earlier, Paul, Christine and I have been looking to do something for the community in her memory for over a year, but nothing that either of us could think of has ever felt... Right.” He turned to Chrissy. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Oh, absolutely. And then you come up with this scholarship, Paul, and it’s brilliant. More than that, it’s perfect. The perfect way to properly honour Rissa’s memory not just for now, but for years and years to come. It’s perfect, Paul. Just perfect.” She grinned a wide grin.

“You really think so?” I asked.

Chrissy nodded. “I do. Yes. It’s perfect. Paul, don’t forget that Rissa was planning to study to be a teacher when you both got back here after your Gap Year. So helping people to continue their education who otherwise might not be able to, is perfect. I know this is at university level and not at primary level where she wanted to teach, but I’m going to explore ways I can use her money to help there too. I have some friends who know some of the teachers at the primary schools in town, so I’ll speak to them as soon as I can and take it from there.”

“But in the meantime,” Will said, “We are definitely going to plough ahead with the Scholarship. I’ve already consulted with my colleague Melissa—I told you about her earlier—and she’s more than happy to draw up the paperwork we’ll need ready for signature.

“We’ll need to set up a trust, which means we will need some trustees—at least three. I would suggest the two of you, since you’re both planning to provide the seed money the trust will need, and myself as both Andy’s and Clarissa’s executor. I’d also suggest we approach the school and see if they would be willing to have one of their senior managers act as trustee on the school’s behalf too. I think that would be a sensible approach.”

I frowned. This was all a bit quick and sounded very formal. Life was never quite as simple as you’d hoped it would be, was it? All I wanted was to help Alannah come back to university after Christmas.

“Okay. So, what would I have to do as trustee?”

“Not much,” said Will. “We will have to define roles in due course, but we have plenty of time to sort that out ahead of any award for the next academic year. You’ll probably just need to review the trust accounts once a year and sign off on them and then approve or reject the person or people chosen for each year’s award. We will have to define the criteria for the award too, but I expect we’ll have to do that in consultation with the school. But as I said, there’s plenty of time for that. The priority will be getting the trust set up, funding it, and then deciding who else gets an award for the current academic year and, if this is really what you want to do, the previous two. Although, I have my reservations about that.”