The Golden Oldie photo published on March 24 was of Bombala Central School teachers taken sometime during the 1960's.

The son of one of the teachers photographed recognised his father's name and forwarded the article to him from Boston in the USA.

Since then Mr Manion senior has been in contact with the Bombala Times sharing his thoughts of his time in Bombala and where life has taken him since then.

Mr Manion taught at Bombala for almost four years from 1964 to 1967 saying he could still recall faces and names of many of his students in Bombala.

"I look back on my time in Bombala with a lot of affection and did attend the 30th (I think) reunion held in Bombala.

"From Bombala I went in 1968 to teach in Papua New Guinea (Sogeri and Goroka) for six years from 1968-1973. At the same time my then Sydney girlfriend went to teach in Canada. After a year apart we married in Woy Woy and then continued to teach in Papua New Guinea.

"We have now been happily married for over 51 years," Mr Manion said.

The couple returned from Papua New Guinea in 1974 and Mr Manion taught at Wollongong for four years before moving to Canberra to teach in Queanbeyan for over five years in 1978.

"Ten years after leaving Papua New Guinea, where two of our four children were born, we returned there to teach in an Senior Agricultural College. This school was about an hour out of Rabaul which because of volcanic activity in 1994 doesn't really exist any more," he said.

From PNG 'the Manion's' moved to Sydney where Mr Manion taught in a Catholic school at Bondi Junction for two years before taking up a position back at a government school in Blacktown.

"At this school, in an Intensive English Unit, my wife and myself taught new arrivals to the country who had little or no English. We did this for 20 years before retiring in 2014," he said

After the couple retired they lived on a three acre property on the Central Coast of NSW until Mrs Manion was diagnosed with Alzheimers/Dementia at the end of last year.

The Manion's sold their Central Coast property to move closer to their family in Sydney.

"Unfortunately because of the COVID-19 pandemic we have had more limited contact and support from family than we had expected," Mr Manion said.