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Meet My Friend:
Susan (Susie) Woollaston

To tell you about my friendship with Susan Woollaston I have take you back to when I was born - or 11 days after I was born. First things first, ever since I can remember I have called Susan "Susie" so from now on that's what I'll be calling her.

Back to our story. According to the story I was told, when I was adopted into the Tierney family I was 11 days old. I was born in a town a few hours drive from Taihape, where I would live, and on the return trip home Brian (my father) stopped in at his local drinking establishment and announced to everyone my arrival. His best friend was already there celebrating his wife having given birth to their daughter that very day.

Susie and I were friends from my first memories and I am privileged and proud to say that we remain friends to this day.

As young children we had similar tastes and spent our weekends when we were able to, together and playing with our dolls pretending to be mothers. I recall with fondness many hours spent walking to and from each other's homes. We lived (and this is a guess here as I've never officially measured it) about 2 miles apart, but those two miles were made up of a hill! So if I were walking to Susie's it was bad for the first half because I would be walking UP the hill for that part of it, then great for the second part because it was downhill for the final part! It kept us fit and out of our parent's hair though, so it worked for everyone involved!

Susie and I had our fair share of fights! On more than one occasion we walked into town and fought all the way back, until Susie's driveway (which, by the way had the largest tree in the town at the end of it!) then we'd miraculously make up on the way up her drive! I can't remember what we fought over, but it was probably something life-or-death at that particular point in my life.

Even later in life Susie and I had our fallings out, but when it came to the 'driveway' of our lives, we found that we were friends again and the reason for our falling out was long forgotten.

Susie has made a terrific life for herself in Taihape. She has always been an artistic person. Give me a few roses and some ferns and I'll make it look like some roses and greenergy. Give the same to Susie and she'll make it look absolutely amazing!

She has an eye for crafts and has made a living out of it. She has done amazingly well for herself and has succeeded magnificiently.

Because she is a busy enterpeneur and a mother of three, we very rarely get to catch up in with each others lives these days, but we do the Christmas letters and generally once or twice during the year we send an email to each other.

We planned on having our 40th birthday celebration together, but that unfortunately didn't happen. Maybe when we're fifty we'll manage to sort out our dates so that we can be in the same part of the world for that special event!

This is one of my favourite photos of Susie and I. It was taken on my trip to Taihape just before my last trip to England in 1989. I got to spend a few days there with her before I took off. We had such lovely times together. Boy, do I wish I were that skinny again ... I couldn't even get those jeans over my toes let alone my hips these days!!
Onto my next friend ...