Two Llandrindod Wells schoolfriends have been virtually neighbours for years in Australia – but only found out during a chance conversation back in Powys!
Beryl Pryce and her husband Peter from Stanthorpe, Australia, were enjoying a holiday in Wales in September when Beryl discovered that her old schoolfriend, Monica Strong, was also living in Australia, about a quarter of a mile from her home.
After 60 years of following separate paths around the globe, the pair were living just minutes away from each other on the other side of the world.
Beryl and Peter left Britain in 1958 and moved directly to Stanthorpe as Peter had an auntie there. It has been their home ever since.
Beryl Pryce, nee Miles, and Monica Strong, nee Phillips, were both former students at the county grammar school in Llandrindod, where Beryl was friends with Monica’s sister, Pat.
Beryl called to visit Pat, who lives at Christchurch Court in Llandrindod Wells, while on holiday last September.
She knew that Monica had also emigrated to Australia, so when she casually asked where Monica was living these days, she was stunned to hear it was in her neighbouring town of Tenterfield.
“We could have passed each other in the street and not known,” said Monica. She left Wales in 1964 during a recruiting drive for school teachers to work in Papua New Guinea.
“I lived there for 10 years,” said Monica, “and then moved to Canberra in 1974.”
She first moved to Tenterfield in the 1980s and has lived in the heritage town, on and off since then, but permanently for the last eight years.
The pair now meet every month for lunch and to share their memories of old times in Llan’dod.