[Claire Halliday]

For more than 20 years now, I’ve been lucky enough to share the company of a range of interesting older women at a monthly lunch.
The group was founded by former Vogue editor, Sheila Scotter, and goes by the name of the Busy Sheilas. Sheila passed away in April 2012 but, 11 years later, the remaining members still meet over fried rice, white wine and other culinary delights, at a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Melbourne.
Sadly, the numbers of our group have dwindled rather dramatically in recent years, through death, the need for residential aged care for some of them, or the difficulty with mobility currently facing others.
Each member of the group was a pioneer in their own way, with women from the early days of Australian television (Vale Judy Ann Ford, who paved the way for modern lifestyle shows after first hitting small screens on-air with Graham Kennedy) and the oh-so elegant model Diane Masters, who caught the photographic eye of Helmut Newton, and showed me what it is to be unwaveringly stylish and graceful (too bad I still prefer cargo pants and jumpers, personally).
Other women in the group have featured in prime television and radio spots, across multiple decades, or headed publicity departments at times when women in the public service still had to retire from their jobs if they were married.
They’ve all taught me so much and I’m grateful that, as a (comparatively) young whipper-snapper, they invited me into their group all those years ago to share those lessons.

Have you ever had a mentor? Or been a mentor to someone else? Do you have memories of seeing Diane Masters model? Or laughed at Judy Ann Ford in those early days of Australian television?

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