Decades of friendship

l CAIRNS

I ISABELLA GUZMAN GONZALEZ

A PASSION for fashion and sorority brought Gail Simpson and Bibi Skerritt together in 1963.

Sixty years later, they are celebrating their longstanding friendship.

“Friendships are almost like a marriage,” Ms Skerritt, 87, said.

“It’s for better or worse, and you take them when they’re cranky and don’t want to talk.

“It takes a long time to grow an old friend.”

They go through photos and laugh at the old-time stories over tea and pastries.

“If I could, I would do it all over again,” Ms Simpson, 75, said.

Ms Simpson and Ms Skerrit met in 1963 when Skerrit’s mother, Ruby Durant, hired 15-year-old Simpson to work at their clothing store, Checkers, on Abbott St.

“I worked selling groceries, and Bibi’s mum used to come into the shop where I worked, she said, ‘you should work in our shop’,” Ms Simpson said.

“I said, ‘no, I’m OK here’, so she sent Bibi, and she said to me, ‘I think you’ll do better selling rags than selling tins’.

“On February 24, 60 years ago, I went to work for them.”

In Checkers, Mrs Durant was in charge of alterations, Ms Skerritt of selling and Ms Simpson was the trainee.

“I said to my mum, ‘don’t worry about training her; she could sell ice to an Eskimo,” said Ms Skerritt, who lives at Redlynch. “She just had the personality for it.”

Their chemistry was unparalleled since the first interaction, and they both confidently affirmed they knew they would be best friends from the moment they met.

“I think from day one we were best friends,” said Ms Simpson, who lives at Yorkeys Knob.. “I even lived with Bibi and her mum for six months.”

“We didn’t have to say it, but we knew it,” Ms Skerritt said.

In 1964, after one year of knowing each other, Ms Skerritt asked Ms Simpson to be her bridesmaid.

“She was my number one bridesmaid,” she said. “I went to work that morning and had to get married at 3pm.

“Gail came to work with me while everyone else was getting dressed for my wedding, it’s terrible, but we didn’t care.

“And then she was there for my baby boy; she nursed him; he’s 55 now,” Ms Skerritt said.

Checkers closed its doors in 1990. Both women parted ways, but destiny kept bringing them together unexpectedly.

“Gail’s uncle was my accountant,” Ms Skerritt said.

“At 23, I ended up marrying Bibi’s family’s landlord, Don Simpson,” Ms Simpson said.

“We both loved fashion, so we went to many fashion parades together, and