Albert was 12 when he went to the juniorate, a boarding school where the boys were encouraged to think about becoming religious brothers. He was a good mixer, good at games and at his studies. After his Leaving Cert, he duly went to the novitiate where they put a robe on him and gave him a different name and he took a vow of obedience.
His teacher training was an intensive four-month period where he learned the skills that fitted him much better than the university courses of today. He was sent to different schools where he taught a full day and took cricket and football teams and did units for his degree whenever he could.
Teaching brothers don't have trade unions to fight their corner and in his final posting he was given dormitory duty in a boys home in addition to his high school classes, sport, class preparation, marking and various religious duties.
He lasted two years before he woke up one morning and couldn't remember where he was or what he was supposed to be doing. He was put in the St John of God hospital where, he told me, many of his fellow patients were nuns.
This was the 1960s. When his progress was slow they gave him ECT treatment; several hits, full strength, right out of Cuckoo's Nest.
Somehow he survived and his Provincial suggested he take a year away from schools and from the disciplines of the Order. They helped him get various jobs — storeman, taxi driver, others he couldn't remember — and eventually he left the brothers.
He met and married Nola and after some years, felt he was strong enough to go back to teaching. One of Sydney's most prestigious schools offered him a position which he turned down when he learned it would involve taking scripture in chapel. It was not a sectarian decision, but one based on a disability that would remain with him for the rest of his life.
He was about to take up an offer of a job in another private school when he was contacted by the Order he had left. He jumped at the chance and was back in an environment he knew well, but now without a vow of obedience.
He taught mathematics