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:
"Is that a no? No worries. You have beautiful kids."
A few weeks later, Nico and her mother took her kids away for a short break. Another message arrived: "Okay, we're still trying to work out if you're married or not."
This story is from the July 2023 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
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 July 2023 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
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
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
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.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
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.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.
