Our 50th reunion held in Mudgee on Saturday 29 May was one of much laughter and memories.

Margarita Archer and I want to thank those who travelled, particularly Phillipa Whitelegg (Conduit) who travelled from Mildura - an epic effort. 29 Attended from a possible 31. We missed you Judith Lord and Annie Curtin.

Our day commenced with a light frost turning into a glorious day of sunshine. Everyone was given a glass of champagne or orange juice on arrival followed by canapés being served in the courtyard then time for a scrumptious two-course meal.

A powerpoint presentation brought much discussion - 'oh I remember that' or 'where did you get that photo?' - in between much laughter.

We had a lucky door prize and three raffle prizes.

• 1st raffle - a very generous prize donated by Patsy Shannon for 2 tickets to 'Come From Away'  the musical, a fundraiser for Normanhurst and Kirribilli. Won by Maryann Stewart (Cramer).
• 2nd prize - a hot plate trivet painted by my mother and won by Jacinta Fallins (O’Brien).
• 3rd prize - a regional produce hamper donated by Celebrations of Life with Margie Rankin (yours truly) and won by Anne McIntosh (Douglass).
• The lucky door prize donated by Margarita Archer, a hamper from the Junee licorice factory, was won by Cathy Roberts (Woods).

The final prize which brought much interest and was won by Janet Ruskin-Rowe (Noonan) was a bottle of wine Margarita had saved from our 40th reunion, with a Loreto label and signatures of those who attended that reunion. To make that more of a challenge, a clause was added - the winner is held responsible for the bottle and required to take it to the next reunion, where hopefully it will be passed on to another. I don't think anyone would want to drink it now!

Maryann Stewart (Cramer) spoke on behalf of the day girls and Liz Brennan (Sarks) on behalf of the boarders. Both spoke beautifully and from the heart - again sharing memories.

Therese Neilson (Vereker) reminded us of the Hepatitis A jab we had to line up for with Dr Dexter Giblin – thanks Therese!

To finish the day we had a sing-a-long - the holiday hymn - the less said about that the better - Sr Deirdre Brown would have been horrified. It did however cause a huge outburst of laughter!

I almost forgot to say congratulations to us all - we are now Jubilarians and as such we were presented with a wine glass embellished with the Loreto crest, along with a replica of one of the original hat pins. Thank you to Loreto Normanhurst for those.

I can also advise the amount of money donated to the bursary and Mary Ward International is as follows:

• Bursary $1320.00
• Mary Ward International $310.00

That is worth celebrating - a fantastic result and I thank you to all who contributed to the raffle.

Now we can look forward to the next one.

Margie Rankin (Bull)