That is brilliant! I should post it on my Reunion WhatsApp! On the subject, there was NO talk of husbands or kids. I think at our stage of life, it’s best avoided. Lots of happy never afters and bounders of husbands as per the above description posted by
@Miscanthus.
We all took the 24 hour or so respite from all things personal and domestic almost by unspoken agreement, or as
@Oops would say, clairaudience! - and chatted about teenage dates, sloppy kisses, getting dumped, the nuns that subjected us to detention in the Convent and were always prowling the corridors looking for girls wearing outdoor shoes or skipping classes, our parents being constantly called in, warnings, suspensions, zero empathy for teenage painful period pains or any character quirks, bus tours, foreign trips, etc. One girl recalled me and her trying to get two lads in the window of our room at Stratford-upon-Avon when Miss Butler knocked on the door. We pulled the curtain so the lad who was half in, half out couldn’t be seen. She said
Is there anyone here who shouldn’t be? Silly question...
of course not! By the time she left, they had understandably scarpered. What would William Shakespeare think?! A cultural trip wasted on the teen philistines. We did get to see Sinead Cusack at the RSC which was wonderful, though.
One girl had a very bad stutter in school and she told us it started when her left hand was tied behind her back so that she would start to write with her right hand when she was in kindergarten. In secondary school, the careers guidance teacher told her that with her stutter she should just become an au pair - that was all she was good for. She tearfully told us that was what she did until she married.
Shockingly, four of us are no longer with us. So very sad. Also, some siblings have passed but a surprising amount of mums are still with us which is fantastic. I used to love the mums!
There was one girl who was completely unrecognisable to everybody. The change is like one of those extreme makeover shows? Nothing was vaguely recognisable. Amazing. She had gone from a fat, plain ginger to a tall, svelte, brunette wearing a Chanel vintage bag and a dress from her own high-end clothing store in Martha’s Vineyard. She had been on a buying trip to Paris and Milan buying for her clients.
As for the rest - very mixed. As
@happyforest said, this is the fun bit - will I know these girls? For the men, it’s hard because of the baldness and lack of definition - we can at least hide behind our hair and put a dab of kohl around the eyes! Ageing is very selective. We are all girls, from an all-girl school, exactly the same age but some were heavily wrinkled and some were fresh-faced. I would say that some had put on tons of weight but it really made them youthful looking facially whereas the fit, toned, gym bunnies looked pretty ragged of face and neck.
The beauties in school were still the beauties. One girl was so pretty in school and is a knockout now too. Her posture was like a ballet dancer - I was mesmerised looking at her during the speeches - ramrod straight in her chair... perfect hair, perfect smile.. perfect in all the photos. There was a lot of gossip and chat and two girls got up and sang - one takes herself very seriously so she sang with her professional singing voice while the other belted out a song she used to sing on the school bus which was hilarious.
The venue wasn’t a great choice. I thought the hotel bland, the menu uninspiring (no salad starters,
two soup options??, flatbread as a starter?? I had a steak as I was hungry and I had to pay an €8 supplement for it but I would have preferred to pay more for the overall package and have a better menu. Service was dire. At our table in particular, we had been sitting for an hour and fifteen minutes without a single drinks order manifesting itself. Drinks were flowing at the other tables though and those girls had all started at lunchtime. Hellcat didn’t have a drink until 930pm! Service STOPPED at 1130pm - we couldn’t believe it! No residents bar? The whole point of me pacing myself was because of the daunting prospect of the fatal residents bar where unravelling can take place pretty sharpish. Hence, the party was moved to our room where girls brought drinks from their own room plus choc coated brazil nuts (yum!), we had brought down two bottles of wine and nuts with us that joined the stash and we carried prosecco and all the balloons up to our room. Apparently, it was 5am when we got rid of them!
Next morning, breakfast was everybody back down, lots of coffee, the full Irish, toasted brown bread (breakfast was better than dinner!) loads more catching up. It really was great, positive energy. Nobody wanted to leave so there was lots more chat in the foyer. Eventually, I packed up the car and turned to see my roomy coming towards me with all of the balloons. I said I can’t drive with the balloons in the car and some of the girls tried to dissuade her - one managing to pop a few - but she was not to be challenged. The balloons were coming with us no matter what. Long story short, I got her delivered safely home with her balloons without being held in police custody.
In truth, nobody had changed - thankfully, all personalities remained intact and exactly the same as in school just a teeny weeeeny bit older.
Yes, different diagnoses, nearly 11 years apart but same area of body. "Highly unusual." 
