Monday, March 8, 2010

FRIENDS OVER THE YEARS (Pt 2)

More friends 12-15: We lived in Coronation Street in North Perth from when I was about 10-13 and I had three really great friends who also lived in that street. Mildred A. Pat McM and Pat L. They all went to the same catholic school in Leederville whereas I was going to Perth College but the 4 of us spent so much time together enjoying games like hop scotch and skipping. Many years later I did see Pat L. again. She owned a jewellery shop in Garden City Shopping Centre and we had several chats over time but the shop has since changed hands so that contact is now lost.

Friends 15-21 and beyond: I began working for an insurance assessor in May of 1947 and made some good friends there. June and I began working on the same day, then came Wilma and Peg and a little later Val joined the firm. Greta was the 'head' girl and she and I were also great friends and in fact it was me she chose to talk to about her problem of becoming pregnant to her boyfriend. I was only 17 and she 21 but she obviously felt I was someone who was a good listener and perhaps reasonably intelligent. She married said boyfriend but they later divorced.

June and I loved to dance and would stay at each other's homes so we could go to local tennis club dances. Wilma also used to join us and sometimes they would both sleep over at our place in North Perth. We went to the dances at Mt Lawley, Alexander Park, and Nedlands Tennis Clubs and also at the University where the dance was held in the refectory. Those were wonderful times and as teenagers we were never bored although there was no television, computers or the like. We didn't need them as life was far too full to waste it sitting looking at screens of various sizes. There were just so any other wonderful things to do.

I went to the weddings of 4 of the girls but June married while I was over working in Melbourne so missed her wedding. I kept in touch with Val and Wilma and they were my two attendants at my first wedding when I was 21. Peg lost her lovely husband David to cancer while she was quite young and had (I think) 4 young children. I did meet up with her again years later when she and I were living in Mount Lawley and did go to her home for lunch but it was a one off which was a great pity. She was a lovely gentle lady.

In 1987 I realised it was 40 years since I began that job with these girls and although I had kept in touch with Val, I was also able to contact June and Wilma and we all met for lunch at Kings Park. We had a great chin wag and kept in touch and had meals at each other's places. Sadly Wilma became very ill and succumbed to breast cancer in 1989 when she was only 57. June, Val and I all lived quite some distance from each other, one to the north and one to the south of where I live but we still saw each other occasionally until, sadly, Val died in 1998 aged 65. She was diabetic and it was a heart attack that finally caused her death, a complication of the diabetes.

June and her hubby Doug are still going strong and enjoying their life in a retirement village in Merriwa. We keep in touch with cards at Christmas and for birthdays. I should telephone her one day soon and make proper contact again.

In my next post I will talk about my lifelong friend Judy who died last year and others I knew during my teenage years.

This may not be all that interesting to others but I am enjoying looking back on friends I have had and people I have known, many of whom I was really very fond of.

I have never regretted organising our little 40 year reunion but do so regret the early deaths of two very dear friends.

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