YOU published a photograph of me on Pages 12-13 of The Herald Magazine (May 9). It is not a very good likeness as it was taken 45 years ago! However, it is me.

An amazing coincidence is that you also printed my name on Page 8 of the paper itself on the same day, as one of the graduates receiving an Open University Bachelor of Science degree at the ceremony in Edinburgh on Saturday.

The reason why I was featured in the photograph, taken in June 1953 at Hillhead Primary School, is that I was the chatterbox of the class, and had been made to sit in the front row, right under the teacher's nose, just before the Glasgow Herald photographer came to take the picture. I still remember the day (particularly after seeing my picture in the paper then) and could tell you the names of the other children in the photo. My name then was Helen McMillan - I never did well at school, and left at 16 without any certificates at all.

I subsequently pursued a successful career in nursing, and realised that I was not the dumbcluck I had been made to feel at school. Eventually, in my early fifties, with my family grown up, I decided to ''prove my intelligence'' and studied for an Open University degree, which came to fruition at the award ceremony on Saturday.

Perhaps David Melbourne would care to decode a message from Somewhere based on this coincidence that the photo should have been used on the very same day as the award of the degree.

Helen Inglis Watson,

115 Main Street, Fintry. May 10.