Rag Day, 1984.
Photo courtesy Carey Lander.

I first met Sal when we were both 7 years old, in 3rd grade of primary school. I had started at the school in 2nd grade, and was told that there was a really nice girl called Sally who was going to be in my class in 3rd grade. Her reputation preceded her even then! We've been friends ever since. It's hard to pick out particularly special memories of our times together because they've all been great.

I certainly remember being very disappointed when we were put into different "houses" in high school because that meant we wouldn't be in the same classes all the time, but we seemed to get over that pretty quickly, and ended up in the same sporting teams anyway.

When we were on the same volleyball team in 1st or 2nd form of high school, we played in a local competition and had a very good coach. Sal was fairly short and, despite trying very hard, had never managed to serve over the net as it was far too high and far away for her. One day, she got it over and not only was our coach (whose sole mission had been to get Sal to serve over the net) and the whole team in raptures, but the whole gymnasium (in which about 6 games were being played at the same time), stopped and applauded. Needless to say, we lost the point as we were all cheering Sal, but it was a wonderful occasion.

I also remember playing hockey with Sal in our last year at school. Sal was right wing and I was right inner, but we talked too much running up and down the field, so our coach moved me to centre forward. One day when we were playing in either a semi-final or final, Sal turned up very late to the game. It hadn't started, but we were meant to be there early to warm up. As it turned out, she'd been to the hairdresser and, of course, we all had to stop the warm up and admire her new hairstyle, find out where she was going that night looking so smart, etc. Our coach, a very serious 32 year-old man, was completely dumfounded about both Sal's reason for being late and our reaction to it!

The year after school, Sal went to Japan for a year's Rotary Exchange and I went to the UK for a year to work in a school. We wrote to each other without fail every single week, long before emails existed. We were having such a different experience to the rest of our friends, who had stayed at home and gone to Uni, we needed to share it with someone who was also experiencing something different. Sal had a really tough start to that year as she was staying with a family who didn't speak any English and she didn't speak any Japanese. As usual, she put on her bright cheery face and got through it, but I know it was a hard time for her.

Over the years Sal and I have had some wonderful holidays together. Every summer during school, we used to go to Broulee Beach, down the south coast of New South Wales, where we learnt a lot about life (no details!). We've enjoyed New Year's eve celebrations in London, and in more recent times we've had some lovely weekends away in country Victoria. In fact it was on a trip to the Coonawarra some years ago, when Sal started telling Caroline (another school friend) and I all about her friend Ronnie. Caroline and I (admittedly after a number of excellent red wines) confidently predicted that Sally and Ronnie would end up together one day, although Sal insisted that Ronnie was just a good friend and thought we were both being very silly - we'd never even met Ronnie after all!

Fortunately our prediction came true, and we've all thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Ronnie over the past few years. In fact, my son, Hamish, adores him and is very pleased that Cam and I are going to go to the wedding even though Hamish doesn't really know what a wedding is.

We're thrilled Sal and Ronnie are going to spend the rest of their lives together and can't wait for the big day on 8th March!

Steph Reeves