Michelle Simpson
“My friendship with Michelle began when we shared a laboratory at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU. I started working there in the summer of 1997, months after graduating and marrying Rory. I was new to the JCSMR, while Michelle was new to the lab group but had worked at the school for many years. From this early meeting I remember Michelle’s frantic schedule—she would tell me about her morning’s rowing training as I came in to start my day’s work, or her evening’s scouting activities as she left for the day. But I think our long and strong friendship was really established months afterwards when, after hearing her complain about not receiving a postcard from a friend and colleague who’d just returned from an overseas trip, I anonymously sent her a postcard with a personal yet ambiguous message. When the card was delivered, she asked and interrogated her many friends around the school about who had sent it, yet her suspicions were never directed at me—even after I told her I had sent someone the same postcard with the same postage stamp on it.
“By the time I’d left the JCSMR, Michelle and I were good friends. Through her, I had become involved in hot air ballooning and kayaked to Springbank Island for a summer evening picnic. I also experienced the happiest period of my research career working on an interesting project in a vibrant laboratory.
“Over the years our friendship grew. We remained in contact via email, and she was always interested in where I was and what I was doing as I travelled the world with Rory.”
