When a group of teenagers with ambitions to be nurses met for the first time in Dunfermline in 1951, little did they realise they were starting friendships that would last 60 years.
Yesterday members of the class of ’51 at Fod House Pre-Nursing School met to remember long nursing careers.
Going full circle they met for lunch in what was once part of their school dining room.
The women still live mainly in Fife and Perth, although their careers have taken them around the world.
The McCrone pre-nursing school, always known as Fod House, was established in the late 1940s by Fife education authority, and remained open until the mid-1960s.
It provided an education for girls, some of whom were boarders, before they started their nurse training.
As well as receiving a general education, the girls studied anatomy, physiology and dietetics in preparation for the first state nursing examinations.
However, both sport and music were also important to the Fod girls who, at Christmas 1952 “cut” their own record, an LP recording of Christmas carols.
They learned to swim in the Carnegie pool and their hockey pitch was on the site of what is now a hotel.
Fod girls have always enjoyed staying in touch with each other, said Janet Saunderson, to share experiences and challenges of their nursing careers-none more so than the class of 1951-54.
Their celebratory lunch was actually held in the Bruce Room of Carnegie conference Centre which is part of the original Fod dining room.