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:
Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin June 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin June 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Maggie's kitchen
Maggie Beer's delicious veg patties - perfect for lunch, dinner or a snack - plus a simple nostalgic pudding with fresh passionfruit.
Reclaim your brain
Attention span short? Thoughts foggy? Memory full of gaps? Brigid Moss investigates the latest ways to sharpen your thinking.
The girls from Oz
Melbourne music teacher Judith Curphey challenged the patriarchy when she started Australia's first all-girls choir. Forty years later that bold vision has 6500 members, life-changing programs and a new branch of the sisterhood in Singapore.
One kid can change the world
In 2018, 10-year-old Jack Berne started A Fiver for a Farmer to raise funds for drought relief. He and mum Prue share what happened next.
AFTER THE WAVE
Twenty years ago, the Boxing Day tsunami tore across the Indian Ocean, shredding towns, villages and holiday resorts, and killing hundreds of thousands of people from Indonesia to Africa. Three Australians share their memories of terror, loss and survival with The Weekly.
PATRICIA KARVELAS How childhood tragedy shaped me
Patricia Karvelas hustled hard to chase her dreams, but it wasn't easy. In a deeply personal interview, the ABC host talks about family loss, finding love, battles fought and motherhood.
Ripe for the picking
Buy a kilo or two of fresh Australian apricots because they're at their peak sweetness now and take inspiration from our lush recipe ideas that showcase this divine stone fruit.
Your stars for 2025
The Weekly’s astrologer, Lilith Rocha, reveals what’s in store for your astrological sign in 2025. For your monthly horoscope, turn to page 192.
MEL SCHILLING Cancer made me look at myself differently'
One year on from going public with her bowel cancer diagnosis, Mel Schilling reveals where she's at with her health journey and how it's changed her irrevocably.
Nothing like this Dame Judi
A few weeks before her 90th birthday, the acting legend jumped on a phone call with The Weekly to talk about her extraordinary life – and what’s still to come.
