Tanya Heaslip

ended up calling the bold band of boarders.

We were like these young skittish fillies, you know, aged 12, no parents, you know, lost in this institution and we became each other's family very quickly.

We're just all like sisters and to this day those friendships are so strong and still there and I see all the boarders, you know, quite often and some of the daybugs now, which is great,

But whenever I see them, it's like yesterday because you have this foundation that it's like you have with your own family and it's so strong when you go through those kind of traumas.

You remember how you were when you were young and foolish together, that kind of thing?

Those are very powerful relationships, aren't they?

Yeah, they are.

And we'd be, oh, my goodness, first year we were all lined up by the headmistress because somebody had underlined sex in the dictionary and

And we were lined up and the headmistress wagging her finger and telling us, girls, you will never marry.

You will never be, you know, get on in this world if you are so disgusting.

And we had to own up as to who'd done it.

And we all stood there trembling in fear.

No one owned up.

And so we were gated for two weeks, which meant we couldn't leave the boarding house, couldn't go out anywhere.

So when you go through that kind of stuff, age 12...

And you don't even know what they're talking about.

Like, what was this headmistress on about?

Tanya, that's a crime against humanity because it's a rite of passage in school to look dirty words up in the dictionary.

And if it's something as innocuous as the word sex, then wow, that's terrible.

So what was your last night at boarding school like?