Celebrating 40 years of friendships by Kathy Johnson
“On Saturday, 20 September, seventeen E85 Matrics met for their 40th school reunion at Laced Coffee, a charming coffee shop in Mowbray owned by Paul and Robyn Roberts (McGregor).
Amid much merriment, each of us was encouraged by Libbi Ball to say a few words on our lives thus far and were amazed to find out how many of us had children aged 26 or thereabouts! Maintaining a now long-standing tradition, Jacqui (Louw) had us in stitches, once again, with her timeless Mrs McIntyre impersonation.
After that we settled down for an à la carte lunch and a chance to catch up more personally with those around us and share a toast to absent friends. We were thrilled that our ’85 Head Girl, Lindy Luger (Smith) could join us all the way from Sydney; her deputy, Chantal O’Brien (Muller) could unfortunately make it only for the school tour.
Thanks to our active WhatsApp group, we received greetings from classmates around South Africa and the world, and marvelled how, if anything, our sense of connection had grown stronger over the years. We are very grateful to Asonele and June Watson for hosting some of us on a tour of the high school before the lunch, during which nostalgia and reminiscence of the past combined with fascination, and admiration for the present and the way the school has successfully managed to keep pace with the times. We are also grateful to Paul, Robyn and the rest of the Laced Coffee for their warm and generous hosting of our group and the beautiful table decor themed in our school colours, and to Di McDonald and Kathy Johnson (Fish) for helping to make the event happen.”
