Preparing to close, Harrow high school holds open house

It's a bittersweet time for the Harrow District High School community as it celebrates the school's final days.

After more than a century of educating students, the high school is set to close at the end of the school year. The school held an open house for former students Saturday.

At 100-years-old, Fred Johnson is the oldest living student to attend Harrow high. He went to school for one year during the Great Depression before he quit to help his family on the farm.  

Though he hadn't been back at the school for quite some time, Johnson was Saturday's guest of honour.  For him, the school brought up long-dead memories.

"It makes me feel kind of alone, because I think of all the students I went to school with and try to think of any that might be living," Johnson told CBC News.  "I look at that old school and I think of the memories, all the good times."

Constance Arner graduated from Harrow as a mature student at 46. She shared classes with her son and at one time, they even had lockers next to each other.

She said Saturday's event was about celebrating the good times at the school.

"It's a wonderful school, people benefited greatly from the foundations of being here," Arner said,

"[It's about] the memory of the people that worked so hard to advance us in our careers, in our lives and our children's lives. This is to pay respect."