General News
23 May, 2025
Long-time friends celebrate milestone
A TIGHT-KNIT group of friends have recently marked a milestone birthday together as they reunited and reflected on their schooling journey.
Karman Hillman, Janet Carr, Lauris Jephcott, Bev Alexander, Carole Manifold and Glenys Roberts all attended the Camperdown State School – now Camperdown College – together, with the group also meeting Delia Robertson during their youth.
Last Saturday saw the group come together to mark their 80th birthdays at the Hampden Hotel, enjoying a locally-made chocolate cake and lunch together.
Mrs Hillman said she found her friends after 56 years with the help of Mrs Robertson and another friend to celebrate the milestone.
“Because we’re all turning our big eight-oh birthday, I thought it’d be nice for us all to get together and celebrate,” she said.
“As we’re getting older, I thought we might not be able to get together next year or the year after that, so why not do it on our 80th.
“I found these girls after my mother had passed away, and I was thinking I must find my school friends.
“I had another friend who was always wanting to do it with me, and she had just moved back to Victoria after living up in New South Wales.
“I met her one day at the show and she said we were going to do that reunion, because we’ve grown up together – she died three weeks to four weeks later, just out of the blue, and I though I’m going to do this.”
Last Saturday’s reunion was far from the first time the friend group came back together – they held their first reunion nine years ago at the Commercial Hotel.
“We had a teacher there who taught us, and we had the principal who was at the school then,” Mrs Hillman said.
“There’s a garden seat outside the window that we donated to the school – we put a plaque on there.
“We’ve been to the chocolatier factory, and we went to the Winchelsea Mansion – we’ve done quite a few things.
“We’ve kept in contact.”
Mrs Hillman said it was a “wonderful feeling” to be able to reconnect with old friends and said it was “very important” to keep friendship ties.
“It’s so good when your friends start off in your life and it’s lovely to have them at the end of your life,” she said.
“We’ve all done our own thing – gotten married, had our children, had our grandchildren – and it’s just lovely that we’ve still got that relationship.
“I would recommend it to anybody to keep up that contact because it’s so important for you in your life.”
Read More: Camperdown