They are friends and classmates whose bond has endured for seven decades.

Members of the Class of 1955 from St. Joseph High School — a former all-girls Catholic school in downtown St. Catharines — gathered to celebrate the 70th anniversary of their graduation on Thursday.

But these friends, now in their 80s, make a point of meeting for lunch every year to catch up.

“Our class is the only class that has kept this tradition going,” says Romana Marconi, who lives in Toronto.

“We just have a spirit. We had a spirit from the get-go.”

Twelve of the original 27 classmates are at the Lake House Restaurant in Vineland on this day, coming from Niagara and Toronto. Some of the others are from farther afield in British Columbia, Florida in the U.S. and Timmins in northern Ontario, and a few have

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