A close bond forged 50 years ago in Dundee has brought six friends back to the city where they first met.
Careers and families have taken them in many directions since meeting at the University of Dundee in 1973 – but they all stayed in touch.
And this week they celebrated their friendship at a very special reunion.
The hairstyles and waistlines might have changed, but the unforgettable memories of dorm life came flooding back when the former students returned to campus for the first time in decades.
Teresa Grocott, Mary-An Van Hogg, Vanessa Patey, Linda Armstrong, Angela Leask and Stephen Mattinson found a city very different to how it was in 1973.
We joined the group in the student union bar on Thursday night, where they were busy reminiscing about nights spent raving in that very building some 50 years prior.
They had travelled from across the UK – and even from Canada – to be here.
“It is very surreal coming back to Dundee,” said Mary-An Van Hogg, 68.
“Some parts look the exact same and others are so different.
“It was quite a rundown Victorian city, falling into disrepair. There were lots of narrow closes and it was not very pretty. And yet we felt so safe here.
“You could walk anywhere, at any time.”
Stephen Mattison, 68, added: “This city is very glitzy compared to what I remember. There are so many bars.
“It was once a depressed town.
“And a pint of beer used to be 13p!”
Looking around the union, where students are sat drinking or studying, Teresa Grocott, 68, said: “This student union opened halfway through our first year, but the bar used to be on the top floor.
“We came in here every Friday and Saturday night.
“There used to be all-night raves here.
“I remember the music scene was very good in Dundee.”
The girls of the group, who are all from areas across England, met each other in the Belmont student accommodation flats.
They met their “honorary flatmate” Stephen, also from England, on the first day of class.
Linda Armstrong, 68, who travelled from Canada for the reunion, recalled: “The girls were in the tower block and the boys were in the lower floors.
“It was kind of radical that it was a co-ed building. There were times we got in trouble if we were seen moving into the wrong areas.”
Angela Leask, 69, recalled one particularly “Dickensian” event on her first day at the university.
She says: “When I arrived on the first day we found our rooms, we were on the eighth floor.
“I was looking over Old Hawkhill and I remember this little man came along with a ladder and he climbed up a lamppost and lit a gas lamp.
“I went and phoned my mum and said ‘I don’t know what I’ve come to mum. It is Dickensian up here. There is a man lighting gas lamps!’
“But then I found out that it was just a tradition to light the gas lamps on that old cobbled road.”
Stephen added: “Another weird thing about coming up here was all the food.
“I had never had a scotch pie before, or white pudding and black pudding.
“I hadn’t even heard of these things before.
“I was in Broughty Ferry this morning and I went to Fisher and Donaldson and I got a rhubarb pie just for old times sake.”
Vanessa Patey, 68, met her husband-to-be William on their very first night out.
The pair have been happily married for more than 40 years.
William, who was in the year above, went on to become British Ambassador to Afghanistan, to Sudan, to Iran and to Saudi Arabia.
The group celebrated his 70th birthday just a few few months ago.
Vanessa, Stephen and Mary-An studied French at the university.
Teresa studied psychology, Linda studied English and Angela studied geography.
Now retired, they led a variety of interesting careers.
Stephen and Teresa were civil servants, Vanessa and Linda worked in administration, while Angela worked in the public sector, and Mary-An worked in her family’s horticulture business.
Friends through thick and thin
The friends have seen each other through thick and thin over the years.
Stephen recalled a particularly challenging period, when his mother died.
He said: “I was living up the road here with Teresa. It was September 1977.
“It was just after I came back from summer break and my mum was ill.
“The evening before my brother called and said mum wasn’t well, she was in hospital.
“Then early in the morning, around 7am, the phone went again.
“It was in Teresa’s room and it was my dad, he said mum had died.”
Tearing up as he recounts the painful memory, he says his friends were there for him.
The group have also supported each other as they navigated parenthood and rocky relationships.
So, how did it feel to get the gang back together?
Angela said: “It feels amazing – it is very emotional.
“You make relationships here that last a lifetime.”
Stephen summed it up best when he added: “Meeting each other was simply fate.
“It is the one of the best things that ever happened to us.”
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