Karen Edwards (nee Boag) Wyvern 1987 and Amanda Sutterby (nee Blake) Wyvern 1987 met as 12-year-olds when they started at Stawell High School. Their time at Queen’s marked a stage of enormous growth that strengthened their bond.

Karen

My first memories are of her being sporty and tall, I’m only 5’7 but she’s lucky to be 5’2, after grade six she didn’t grow at all.

Stawell High wasn’t very big and we were in the same friendship group. We were lucky that we got to go to Queen’s together, we thought it sounded like a good solution for us so we both applied and both got in. Amanda was doing physio at Lincoln and I was at Melbourne Uni doing commerce. Here we were country kids, transitioning into the next phase of our life to become city kids, so we were there for one another through all the experiences of that journey. It was nice to have that next phase of growth together because it was a big change coming from the country navigating the big smoke.

Queen’s was a safe place to land, our parents knew we were going somewhere safe and secure. It was such a good thing for us, you get there and there’s 200 kids just like you to be friends with, how good’s that? You just had to walk out your door. It was amazing. We were so lucky to have had that experience, the friendships you get out of that last a lifetime. We played a lot of sport at Queen’s, following on from what we’d always done, and there are fond memories of labs turns, driving home to Stawell together, hitching rides together, laughs. I can just picture lots of people laughing and her being there.

I call her Mands or Manda, she hates being called Mandy but she never tells me off when I do it, I might be one of the only people who gets away with it.

I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a stronger one between us. I don’t feel like we’ve ever really needed to have a strong one because we both know the roles we play in our relationship.

We both talk a lot, that probably drives other people mad about both of us but we are actually ok about it together. It’s hard to get a word in with her a lot of the time but that’s fine. We always have so much to say, that’s the problem. There’s so much to get out, we have such a short amount of time to say so much.

We have always stayed in contact, we’ve done things in different phases but we’ve always had that connection of having been from the same town, same school, the same College at Queen’s, that has always kept us really close. She had her family early, she was a young Mum. When she had three kids under three, the first being twins, I was on the other side of the world, so I wasn’t much help. When I had mine, I was on the other side of the world then too so we didn’t really help one another with our kids so much. Lately we have the challenge of older parents.

She’s got better at coping under stress. Her mind goes very fast, she has a lot of thoughts, she’s trying to get a lot out. She’s a pleaser to the detriment of herself, always trying to make everybody happy which is probably her biggest fault. She runs herself into the ground making sure everyone else is happy.

She is intelligent, if you get her talking about her medical side, physio, she’s been a lecturer at Deakin Uni, she’s very knowledgeable, She is good at the sciences, humanities, and got full marks on her Year 12 art subject. Amazing. Who ever gets 100% in anything so subjective? She has this unusually creative bent, she’s a botanic artist which is quite specific. She’s good at all art but has really gone deep into that, she’s just so good at it. She’s not someone who has ever been ‘braggy’, she is very, very talented but it’s not in her nature to be so. I think she’s quietly proud of herself.

She’s funny, we laugh a lot, she’s very vivacious, people gravitate to her because of her warm and open, welcoming personality, she’s very loyal, has always been very loyal to me. I think she is the popular kid, who doesn’t want to be friends with her?

We are there on one another’s journeys through life. Life without her wouldn’t be right. I just don’t imagine a time when she’s not going to be around, hopefully we lead the same journey on that front as well.

Amanda

Karen was always very bright at school and we motivated each other to do well. It was a really healthy competition. She always wanted to go into finance and I always wanted to do physiotherapy so we weren’t competitive in that regard.

Queen’s was a good option for us because neither of us had family in Melbourne, or a great deal of Melbourne experience, we had been there to represent the Wimmera at state athletic championships at Olympic Park, that was about all. Queen’s was a fantastic choice, Linda Nunn (Wyvern 1986) had gone the year before us from Stawell High and reported what a great time she had so that’s how we became aware of it.

It must have been frightening for our parents, sending us off to Melbourne. I was thrilled that I was accepted because I knew it made Mum and Dad really comfortable knowing I had this home away from home – there was a family feel to it, that I would have meals provided, a nice roof over my head, and an instant friendship group. The fact Karen was going too was really comforting because I had a friend to set up with.

I know lots of people make friends at Queen’s but I came with my best friend. That didn’t stop us from really flourishing, growing and developing on a whole other level. That’s special, we could have grown differently or stuck by each other’s sides and not made other friendships. Kazzy has lots of very dear friendships she made at Queen’s, I probably couldn’t keep up as much socially because I just didn’t have the time with 35 contact hours, and that’s ok. It’s good. Queen’s was interesting because it came at a time when we both really needed it and we both really grew.

Going to Queen’s made a difference to our friendship, absolutely. Now when we get together, not only can we talk about the things we had in common from growing up in the same country town but we can talk about Queen’s. It has strengthened our friendship, it’s the best thing ever.

There isn’t a leader between us, we coalesce very well together, I think we both admire each other and the strengths we both have that are unique to us. Our common thread is in our upbringing and our hard work, we can spot bullshit a mile away, that’s the country in us. Also, our intellect but it’s a different intellect, she’s very clever in a different way from me, we have different strengths.

There’s nothing about Kazzy that drives me mad, not a single thing. She’s an absolute delight. There are some friends you love dearly but there are things they do that annoy you. We both talk so quickly, we just go a million miles a minute and anyone who is in our presence has to sit back because we chop and change and pick up each other’s threads again straight away. It’s quite hysterical.

She’s crazy clever. Her intellect, and ability to work around the clock, make her an incredible person. I do admire that; her work ethic is second to none. She has a loveliness and magnetism about her that people are attracted to and she is very genuine, there’s nothing fake about it.

I was a mother well ahead of her and it must have seemed unrelatable at the time for her and where she was when she was working overseas and now she’s going through all of that.

The entire time she was in Singapore working as a senior executive in banking and finance, we could ring up and it was like she was just next door, it’s crazy, that’s insane. She is fabulous to talk to because when she’s there, she’s absolutely present. She is not distracted by other things. When she asks a question, she is genuinely interested in the answer, I love her very present nature. I don’t really lean on her but I know if I needed her she’d drop everything and be there for sure. It’s glorious, we just get each other. It would appear I’m doing my thing and she’s doing her thing but we come back together and it’s like we are still part of one.

The essence of a person doesn’t change from when you are 12, 18 or 55, regardless of your experiences that core of you stays solid and true. So, no matter what is going on in your world, you still have that stuff in common. Just because you haven’t sighted someone for a long time doesn’t mean you can’t pick up where you left off. It’s fabulous. It’s gold.