Kay Story…..
We met February 1969 when I had a disastrous first day at
school in a new country, and Kay took pity on a pom in detention.
We both lived in Risdon Vale and I would often walk to Kay’s,
we would catch the school bus together and then go to a friends house in Rose
Bay for a cuppa and then walk back to school; there were also days when we
deliberately missed the school bus in order to catch the city bus and chat with
our friend Annette who went to a private school.
Kay and I, and our other friend Maz regularly managed to not do sport together. Friday
afternoons straight after lunch we would manage to lose our timetable and spend
time together, with Maz singing, bar bar bar bar Barbara Ann, and us providing
the chorus, making plans for the weekend, swapping clothes, records and dreams.
Occasionally we would go to Rosny Regional Shopping Centre always looking out
for Choco Royle, so we wouldn’t get a detention. On one occasion when we did
participate in PE, we managed to get lost walking around the Hill behind school
and had to miss out on the next class that afternoon, as we cut through the
bush, skirting the golf course down to Gordon’s Hill Road and sauntered back to
school having a fag to calm our frazzled nerves.
Maz and I remember
the sports mistress telling us she was going to ask our mother’s to get us
checked out gynacologically as we managed to miss swimming every week for an
entire term - but we didn’t discriminate - we missed all sports.
Kay and I became good friends, Kay was a patrol leader in
our local Girl Guides unit and I transferred to Australian Guides and became
her seconder. The following year we
discovered the CWA hall dances with The Corvettes which were also on a Friday
night. Kay dropped Guides first, quickly followed by myself in favour of the
local fortnightly dance. Our fathers
used to take it in turns to run us back and forth to the dance in Lindisfarne,
and later to Humpty’s in Moonah on one of these occasions my father’s car had
problems and every time we stopped in the traffic we had to get out and push
his car to get it going again, in platform shoes and flares it wasn’t a good
look. We were very pleased to see Kay’s
dad at the end of the dance.
Our Rose Bay days where too soon behind us and Kay went on
to Elizabeth Matric, and I went to work…luckily in North Hobart so we still
caught up on a regular basis.
Life occasionally got in the way of our friendship and we
could go long periods of time where we did not see each other, but our paths
would cross again, and we would just pick up where we left off, over a cuppa we
would chat and joke about the twists and turns we had taken and it was as if we
had only been out of touch for a week or so.
Our kids went to the same school, but were in different
years we would often have a chat at the bus stop as Kay went to work and I went
home, usually with kids in tow who didn’t mind playing on the oval while we
kept watch for the city bus.
Kay was always busy with some project either at home or at
The Shack, but always had time to help anyone, she took pity on me and my lack
of sewing skills often turning up work trousers, or giving advice on sewing
projects. We both loved crafts and would
often share ideas and patterns, comparing our wool stashes, and upcoming
projects. Kay also had a wicked sense of
humour so the emails would go back and forth with jokes. Our dads had taught us the same fractured
nursery rhymes and Christmas carols which we would compare and inevitably teach
to our kids.
We had the same sort of friendship with our other good
friend Maz, who had spent some time on the mainland after RBHS. I bumped into Maz at the local store and we
chatted in the aisle for what must have been a good hour…. The three of us
resumed our friendship, transferred from the terraces of Rose Bay High, to Kay
and Lee’s kitchen.
Maz often caught up with Kay through the course of her work,
and fondly remembers the drawer at Kays work, which always had lollies which
she freely shared.
Kay, Maz and I spent a lovely morning together recently,
drinking tea, telling jokes, chatting, sorting wool, and copying knitting
patterns. Little did we know it would
be the last time we would be together.
Kay has never changed over the years, always ready with a
quip or joke, a cuppa and a cake, never judgemental, always loving and caring,
supportive through everything that life throws at you.
Kay Mate,
We have gone from Witches Britches, Hair ties and slouch
socks
to boyfriends, marriages and maternity smocks.
Our love of cars, music and the odd craft project,
Home renos, family and kids we love to protect
life changes, training and new careers,
Our friendship spanned so many years.
God didn’t need to prove it, we already knew,
He took the best, and broke our hearts, when he took you.
