It may be a very different time but the characters were the same at a heartfelt reunion in Warrnambool this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Karen Kelly-Kiss, Pam Fleming and Sister Eileen Ann Daffy all came together on February 5, 2024 at the place they first stood as a trio half a century ago.
That place was 127 Timor Street, which in 1974 was a private house, but is now an Airbnb.
The three ladies will gather at the house for two days to reminisce about 50 years of friendship.
Ms Kelly-Kiss was 25 and living in her native state of Connecticut when Sister Daffy travelled to the US and placed a newspaper article looking for teachers for Warrnambool's St Ann's College.
An adventurous soul, Ms Kelly-Kiss successfully applied and before she knew it was arriving in Warrnambool to take up her post.
Ms Fleming had also answered Sister Daffy's recruiting call, all be it closer to home from Geelong.
The three meet at 127 Timor Street with the two young teachers from opposite sides of the world becoming not only colleagues and housemates but close friends.
Ms Kelly-Kiss taught for two years at St Ann's before heading back to the US for 18 months.
She returned to Australia, spending time in Shepparton, before settling in Geelong, where she married and had two children.
Ms Fleming married a Warrnambool lad before the couple moved to Geelong to raise their family.
Ms Fleming travelled to the US to see Ms Kelly-Kiss as part of her honeymoon.
Sister Daffy, who has worked all over the globe, was a driving force behind the successful amalgamation of CBC and St Ann's into Emmanuel College.
For Ms Kelly-Kiss, this week's symbolic reunion was very special.
"I have been back to Warrnambool before but it's lovely to be coming back to the same place 50 years later to recreate this memory," she said.
"It was such a wonderful period of our lives and it means a lot to be here again."
The visit included a tour of Emmanuel College.
