After emigrating to Australia I lost touch with all my school and teenage friends. When I discovered Friends Reunited I was able to find several old friends. Kathleen Hemingway being one.

In 2005 I came back for a holiday to meet up with these friends. It was just like stepping back in time. Of course we had all got fifty years older, but the ravages of time vanished as soon as we got together and started talking.

What have I been doing with myself over these years, well in 1977 I started General Nurses Training. I had always wanted to be a nurse even when I was at school. I remember going with the school to Bancroft Road Hospital on a Career Path visit. We were shown lots of specimens in glass jars and told what a worthwhile career nursing was. Unfortunately that wasn’t what my mother wanted for me and in those days we did what our parents wanted.

I studied hard and got my State Registration, then my Midwifery Certificate, and Child Health Certificate. By that time I was hooked on studying and went on to get a Bachelor of Science Degree. I nursed in the Community, and in Hospital Liaison, before becoming a Health Educator. I was spurred on by my memories of one of our teachers, Mrs. Mendham. She held a Bachelor of Science Degree. I was always under the impression that she really didn’t think I would amount to much. It was her words that spurred me on when things were difficult.