It’s a relationship that’s been more than seven decades in the making and one the life-long friends believe is heaven sent.
Jo Mercer, Faye Kenny, and Maureen Keady graduated with Randwick’s Brigidine College class of 1951, and after spending the past 70 years living around the world, they have incredibly ended up back together.
The trio are now residents at Southern Cross Care NSW & ACT’s Retirement Village ‘Kildare Court’ at Maroubra, which was once the convent of the Brigidine Sisters who educated them and was taken over by the aged care provider in 2000.
The life-long friends have kept in touch over the years, with the now Sr Faye and Sr Maureen becoming Brigidine Sisters and Jo working globally as a lawyer.
However, since their retirement the trio have come to realise how important their friendship is, with Jo, 89, and her husband David, 94, purchasing their apartment and moving interstate on the Sisters’ recommendation.
Not even a gruelling 27-hour journey from Adelaide by train could dampen their spirits, with the couple thrilled with their new address which they both agree “already feels like home.”
“It’s just so wonderful to be here, it’s only been a few weeks and we both truly feel like we are where we are meant to be, it’s such a blessing,” Jo said.
“Living in Adelaide without any family was getting quite difficult so we knew we needed to move somewhere with more support, and hearing how happy Faye and Maureen were at Kildare Court, we decided to join them.
“We sold our townhouse relatively quickly to the neighbouring Jesuits who we were very close to, and bought our new apartment based on the pictures online.
“Packing up and moving interstate is hard at any age but knowing we would have family and friends like Maureen and Faye around us made it all worthwhile.
“We love the apartment, it’s beautiful and has everything we need, and having my two friends here is the icing on the cake.
“If you had asked me 72-years ago when we left school if I thought we’d all end up living together I’d have just laughed, but here we are and couldn’t be happier.”
“We have always kept in touch, either over the phone or via letters and more recently email but all living in the same place is so lovely,” Sr Maureen said.
“It just shows God really does have a hand in everything.
“We are so happy living here and couldn’t recommend it more highly, we just love it.”