Carol holding me as children in Barcaldine, photographed by my younger brother with my Box Brownie camera. Behind us is Lagoon Creek, one of the places where we played.
“What’s News?” The Question That Still Resonates Today
THIS remembrance of a childhood friendship begins with a simple question: “What’s news?”
One of the people I remember most clearly from my school years is my good friend Carol. In upper primary school, she became seriously ill with a brain tumour.
By the final months of Year 8, she could no longer attend school, but I continued to visit her after school. Each time I arrived, she would ask the same question.
“What’s news?”
Carol wanted to know what had happened at school that day. She wanted all the ordinary details most of us barely noticed at the time.
Who had said what? What had happened in class? Had anything funny, surprising or interesting taken place?
So I would sit with her and relay the day’s events.
I could not change what Carol was going through, but I could bring a little of the outside world into the room. Through those everyday stories, she could remain connected to the familiar routines, people and conversations of school life.
At that age, I did not think of it as storytelling. I was simply talking with my friend.
An Early Wish to Help
Me with my doll in Barcaldine, photographed by Carol with my Box Brownie camera.
Carol’s illness had a lasting effect on me. After she died, becoming a nurse seemed like a way to care for people facing illnesses like hers and, somehow, make a difference.
Life eventually led me in another direction; first into drafting and later journalism.
In hindsight, that change probably suited me better. As the years went by, it became apparent that I was squeamish and poorly equipped for some of the unavoidable realities of nursing.
Nevertheless, the wish behind that childhood ambition never entirely disappeared. The desire to help remained; I simply had to find a different way to do it.
Finding Another Way
Journalism gave me that opportunity.
As a regional journalist, I learned that stories could inform people, give them a voice and connect communities. A well-told story could draw attention to an overlooked issue or help readers understand experiences beyond their own.
Looking back, I sometimes wonder whether those conversations with Carol marked the beginning of my life as a storyteller.
Whenever she asked, “What’s news?”, she gave me a small but important task: to observe what had happened, remember the details and retell them in a way that would interest someone who had not been there.
Years later, those same skills became central to my working life as a journalist and storyteller.
Stories in the Service of Care
My career eventually brought me closer to healthcare, although not in the way I had imagined as a schoolgirl.
After closing my photography business, I moved into media and communications. One of those positions was with UnitingCare Health, where the stories and information we shared supported a much broader purpose.
I helped promote healthcare services and fundraising efforts, connecting people with information that mattered. I was not caring for patients at the bedside, but I was contributing in another way.
Over time, I came to understand that helping does not have a single form.
Some people provide medical treatment. Others conduct research, raise funds, prepare meals, volunteer, share important information or tell the stories that help a cause reach the wider community.
Each contributes something different.
The Question That Endured
Today, the Good Causes section of Jocelyn Magazine continues that thread.
It gives me a place to recognise people and organisations working to improve healthcare, wellbeing and community life, particularly across regional Australia, while also sharing why certain causes have become personally meaningful.
Carol could not have known where those afternoon conversations would lead. Nor could I.
I never became the nurse I once imagined I would be. Instead, I became a journalist, photographer, editor and communications professional. Yet in each role, I found opportunities to inform, connect and help.
Perhaps that is why Carol’s question has stayed with me.
“What’s news?” was more than a request for school gossip. It was an invitation to bring the world to someone who could no longer take part in it as freely as before.
All these years later, I am still trying to do that through the stories I tell.
And whenever I sit down to write, a part of me is still answering Carol.
***
The Barcaldine Show was part of the everyday world of growing up in a small Queensland town. Captured by me with my Box Brownie camera, circa 1969.
Author’s note
This is a personal remembrance of a friendship that helped shape my life. I have deliberately limited the details of Carol’s illness because her story belongs first to her and to those who loved her.
My purpose is simply to remember the friend who wanted to hear about the ordinary world beyond her room, and to acknowledge the lasting influence she had on my life.
Jocelyn Watts
Jocelyn Watts