- Wendy and Veronica became best friends as teenagers in outback Queensland in the 1960s, forming a lifelong bond and a pact to one day return to Hughenden together.
- Though marriage, children, careers and distance took them in different directions, they stayed close for decades, supporting each other through life’s hardest moments.
- Nearly 60 years later, both retired and single, they fulfilled their teenage promise both moving back to Hughenden and living their dream side by side.
Wendy Windridge, 68, Hughenden, Qld tells her own story in her own words.
As she wheeled her shiny bike along beside her, I frowned at my friend Veronica.
‘You don’t want to ride to school?’ I asked.
‘Nah, because then I can’t walk with you,’ she countered, beaming widely.
It was February 1972 and, at 15 years old, Veronica and I were as thick as thieves.
Her family had moved into the house directly across from ours in Hughenden, in the Queensland outback, five years earlier, in 1967.
I lived there with my mum, Glenys, my stepdad, my sister and my four half-brothers.
Veronica and I were in the same grade at St Francis Catholic Primary School and often spotted each other across the pews at church.
Before long, we were inseparable. We knew life would likely take us away from Hughenden when we grew up.
‘Like chalk and cheese, Veronica lived life on the straight and narrow, while I was a little more wild.’
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‘Let’s make a pact to come back to Hughenden one day and live here when we’re old ladies,’ I suggested.
‘We can live in the retirement home with adjoining units,’ she giggled.
Like chalk and cheese, Veronica lived life on the straight and narrow, while I was a little more wild.
I taught her how to be naughty, and she kept me from getting into too much trouble!
On weekends we went to dances or we’d visit friends’ houses and listen to cassettes.
In grade nine, I’d left school and worked at a newsagent before taking up a job, aged 15, as a nurse at Hughenden hospital in 1974, with Veronica by my side.
Together we helped deliver babies and patch wounds.
After tough shifts, Veronica always cheered me up with a smile and I’d do the same for her.
‘Let’s make a pact to come back to Hughenden one day and live here when we’re old ladies’
At 16, I started dating Ian, Veronica’s neighbour. He was so sweet to me, and when he asked me to marry him two years later, I said yes immediately.
When we tied the knot in 1976, Veronica was my bridesmaid.
She married a builder, Stephen, in 1977, and the pair moved to Brisbane so he could find work.
After we married, Ian and I relocated to Ipswich, where he worked in the courts as a clerk while studying to be a magistrate. There we had two children, Belinda, in 1976, and Daniel, in 1979.
In between my two bubs, Veronica welcomed a daughter, Sheralee in 1978.
Our family grew again with the arrival of Katrina in 1981, and Cynthia in 1982. And after seven years in Ipswich we moved to Emerald.
I was thrilled when Veronica had a baby boy, Raymond in 1983.
I worked as a nurse, in childcare, and later as a family resource worker with family services.
Seeing so many children in need broke my heart, and before long I opened my home to them too.
Between 1996 and 1998, I fostered 35 children.
Despite busy lives and living in different towns, Veronica was never far from my thoughts.
We spoke every couple of months and wrote letters, updating one another on family, work and the kids.
Whenever ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ by Carole King came on the radio, I’d think of Veronica and reach for the phone. We could talk for hours.
It was during one phone call when I was 49, in January 2008, that, through tears, I told Veronica about my mother’s lung cancer battle.
‘I’ll come and help you,’ she promised without hesitation.
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Leaving her family, she jumped on a plane and came straight to be by my side at the hospital, caring for Mum, then 71, in her final days.
For nine days we fed, bathed and dressed Mum together.
In the hardest moments of my life, Veronica was there with a cuppa, a cuddle and quiet strength.
She loved my mother too, and her passing that month affected us both.
‘I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you,’ I told her after the funeral.
‘I’d never let you do it alone,’ Veronica replied.
Over the years, phone calls and Facebook messages have kept us connected.
And whenever I visited Veronica in Brisbane, it felt like no time had passed.
Then, in July 2022, Veronica, then 64, rang with some big news. She’d sold up and bought a home back in Hughenden!
‘Over the years, phone calls and Facebook messages have kept us connected.’
With the kids grown, both of us retired and single for many years – she’d figured, why not?
‘Just like we planned!’ she laughed.
Three months later, and 50 years since we made our pact, I kept my end of the bargain and moved back too.
As the last box was unloaded at my new Hughenden home, I smiled at Veronica.
‘We actually did it.’
‘Knew we would,’ she grinned back.
‘It feels like our almost 60 years of friendship has passed by in the blink of an eye.’
We don’t have adjoining units in a care home, but we are practically neighbours again, living just five minutes apart and seeing each other most days.
We keep busy – Veronica volunteers with the CWA, the church and the local Vinnies shop, and I’m a keen crafter.
In March, we’re taking our very first holiday together, travelling to Sydney, NSW, before riding the Indian Pacific Railway to Adelaide, SA, and boarding the Murray Princess for a cruise on the Murray River.
It feels like our almost 60 years of friendship has passed by in the blink of an eye.
I feel lucky every day to have Veronica in my life.
I call her ‘sis’ now, because what we share goes deeper than friendship.
It’s a sisterhood, and that’s forever.
Veronica, 68, says:
I love Wendy’s big heart. We’ve shared so much through laughter and tears. Our friendship is special.
