1960
Sheelah, Fiona and Morag had just finished their final performance with The Old Vic, at the Empire Theatre in Glasgow. They were sitting in the dressing room they had shared for seven weeks, removing their stage make up.
The costume department had collected their costumes and props, and were busy on stage packing everything into large baskets, ready to be loaded onto the vans, back to their storage warehouses on the outskirts of Stratford.
There was the general noise of the scenery being taken down and removed from the building. Stage hands were calling to each other as the theatre was turned back from a historic scene, to the empty shell.
The audience had left, and the cleaners were busy cleaning up the auditorium. There was a muted hubbub coming from the other dressing rooms as actors and actresses were preparing to leave and move on. The theatre family was breaking up, going their various ways, moving on to new adventures and challenges.
Sheelah, Fiona and Morag finally finished packing up their own personal things, found their coats, took a last look around the room.
'It'll be strange,' murmured Morag, 'not to be coming here every day, seeing everyone. I'm feeling quite sad and also rather nervous.' This had been Morag's first real play, she had been so lucky to get such a good part at nineteen and wondered if she would be so lucky again.
'I know how you feel,' 20 year old Sheelah said, 'It has been the best time, such an opportunity, to play with so many well known actors.'
The three girls left the theatre, went to their digs and got ready for the after play party. Everyone who had been involved were there, enjoying themselves and forgetting for a short while the uncertainty of their profession. Some had new jobs already lined up to go to, but many would be back at the agent's offices looking to see what might be possible.
The next morning, quite early, the three girls were standing at Glasgow station, feeling a little down. Morag was heading home to Wales for a break and to see her family, before returning to London for more auditions. Sheelah was heading for Edinburgh to start in a new play, she was feeling excited but also a little scared. Fiona was going straight back to London in the hope of finding a new part, but at least knew she had a temporary office job to go to, which would help pay her rent.
Finally the time came for the three girls to say their goodbyes. Suddenly it seemed apt to use that line, from the Scottish play, that they had said very performance over the last seven weeks. 'When shall we three meet again?' With a wry smile the three girls parted, waved and moved on, then turned, waved again and left.
1978
Morag was waiting outside the school gates, with the other parents, waiting for their children to come rushing out, like puppies suddenly let off the leash. Morag's two boys were eight, twins with curly red-haired, doing well at school and up to mischief when allowed. Her daughter, six, was much quieter but a red head too. Morag had married 9 years ago to a soldier and her family had been in many different army towns over the years. She had found it hard, never really settling down and making real friends, just other families on the barracks.
She looked around the other parents, standing in their groups, chatting and laughing, when suddenly out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure that looked familiar.
'No it can't be, or could it?' she thought. 'I'll move nearer and get a better look.'
'Morag! Is it you? After all this time, I don't believe it.'
'Fiona, it is you, how marvellous. I've never seen you here before.'
'We moved here last week, my two joined the school last Monday.'
Just then the school doors opened and children poured out, rushing here and there, jostling through the adults, Morag's boys passed over to her there bags and run off on their way home, her daughter Charlotte grabbed her hand. Fiona's son and daughter joined their mother.
'We'll meet here tomorrow morning and have a proper chat,' shouted Fiona over the noise.
The following morning Morag waited at the gates with a smile on her face. She had said goodbye to her children and had waved as they went in. Then she saw Fiona standing by a car. 'Come on, coffee I think.'
As they chatted and caught up with each other's news, they both relaxed and felt just the same as they had when they had been in the theatre together.
Suddenly Fiona said, 'You'll never guess who is in a play in town? Sheelah! I saw the advert in the local paper last night, isn't that incredible, all three of us in the same area?'
'Perhaps we could contact her and meet?' replied Morag. 'It would be lovely.' A few days later the three girls were sitting in a restaurant, chatting away happily about their lives now and when they were last together.
'So we three did meet again.' Fiona smiled as she said it. The others smiled too, a little reminder of those earlier days.
Unfortunately two years later, Morag's family once again were on the move to a new army town; she was sad to go and lose her friendship with Fiona again. Sheelah had moved on to bigger challenges in America's film industry, so the three were apart again. Would they ever meet up again?
2014
Sheelah was sitting in the sunlit bay of the communal lounge of her warden assisted flats, she had just celebrated her 74th birthday and was looking through the photographs of her family. She smiled as she glanced through at her two boys, their wives and children. In her hand she held a letter inviting her to a large family gathering to meet the families of Henry's (her eldest boy's son) fiancé and Geraldine's (her youngest son's daughter) boyfriend.
A week later, dressed in her best, she was picked up by Peter (her eldest son) and driven to the restaurant the families had taken over. Henry met her at the door and escorted her over to where his fiancé grandmother was sitting with Geraldine's boyfriend's grandmother. Suddenly all three grandmothers were laughing and hugging each other.
'Well, well, well,' they said in unison, 'We three meet again! And it looks as if we shall continue to do so.' Diane Marylyn Silverston 27.03.14 2014