It started over a sausage sizzle and casual game of cricket on a sweltering Queensland day. Journalist Nicole Madigan was feeling flat. Her marriage was ending, and it had been a bruising few years. But she had tossed her blonde hair up into a bun to take her son to his game and when it was his turn to bat, she perked up and snapped some photos. A woman she didn’t know breezed past. “Are you taking photos of Adam?”
“What?” Nicole asked, bemused. She wasn’t sure she had heard the woman correctly. Adam was one of the fathers who coached the team. “An acquaintance at best,” Nicole says. It was a strange interaction that Nicole might have completely forgotten had she not received a Facebook message that night from someone named Karissa Owens*.
“Hi! Sorry, totally didn’t mean anything by my comment when the boys were playing cricket ... Anyway, really wanted to chat to you today.”
Nicole was taken aback. “This is a person I don’t know. I thought it was really strange.” But she didn’t give it much thought. A week later Karissa messaged again: “Can I ask you a question? Are you married?”
Nicole was in the process of separating from her husband of 12 years. “I was not going to start talking about this to this stranger,” she says. The woman sent several more messages.
“But you aren’t married, right?”
“Sorry it’s quite weird, hey! Haha. Guess I’m trying to ask if you’re married.” Karissa’s determination unnerved
Nicole. “It seemed like something was going on, but I didn’t know what,” she says. She initially replied so as not to be rude but decided to ignore the woman when she pressed the marriage question. That night, the woman sent more messages:
This story is from the June 2023 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2023 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.