Popular Lismore local Noreen Colley reopened the relocated Duck Pond Espresso Bar this week in Union St, South Lismore, but “cafe owner” is actually only the third - and possibly not even final - chapter in the story of her working career.

In 1966, I started working at New England apparel, which was a menswear factory over south. I can clearly remember the first day when the boss was walking along and the girl that was teaching me was capable of doing 450 pairs of trousers, doing the back seams each day, and I hadn't completed eight. I could see the boss coming and thought, oh, this isn't going to be good. He's going to fire me. And he just walked past and went "see you tomorrow".

That was on the Monday. And then by the Wednesday I had managed to do actually 15 back seams. And then on the Friday he walked up and pushed the trousers aside and sat on the box beside me and he said, "How do you think you're doing?". And I said: "Well, if you're going to fire me, make it short and quick". And he said: "No, no, no. I can see a lot of potential in you. See you Monday." And with that he walked off and I looked and I looked at the girl that was training me and I said, “So how long did it take you to get to 450?” She said: "Probably about six months." So within eight weeks I was doing 600 and she told me to slow down because I was making her look bad. So that was my start and my introduction into the fashion industry.

After I left New England Apparel in about 1982, a bride asked me to do her three bridesmaids dresses. None of the girls liked what was picked out for them, so after the wedding was over, they brought them back to me. After they left, another girl walked in the door and she said, “Oh look, I'm just looking for three bridesmaids dresses. What can you do cheap?” These three dresses were hanging on the door and she said, “Can I hire those?” That was the start of Lismore Bridals.

It started from three bridesmaids dresses, then I started to supply some other bridal stores and eventually I was getting them manufactured overseas over in Taipei.

In about 2007, my husband fell ill. Basically, the doctors said he needed 24-seven care. He had what they call a mielodisplasia. It's really dreadful. MDS is the abbreviation. It's a really bad formula leukemia to which there is no cure. You basically survive on blood transfusions. And that was the first of eight years with a massive downhill slide.

So I had to just basically shut down and walk away from my business. A friend of mine who could sew, she decided to buy it.

I was sitting there beside the bed because my husband would be in hospital for five, six, seven days at a time. So then whilst it was there, I just started helping other patients in the room if they needed to get across to the bathroom or whatever and then I decided, well, while I'm here I might as well start and hit the books to become a nurse

I think it was just spending so much time at the hospital, in probably one of the worst wards you could be in, the cancer ward, and to see how these people could put on such a brave face and a smile.

I happened to be sitting beside the bed one day and the NUM walked in, the nurse unit manager, and she said, “Oh, you've got covered footwear, navy slacks, white top? Come with me.” And I said, “what am I doing?” She said, “Well, if you don't mind, can you do a day's work.” And I said, “:Yeah, but I'm not employed here at the hospital.” She said, “You are now. Do you mind starting in the pan room?” I said, “You've got to start somewhere.”

I had eight years at the Lismore Base Hospital. My main role was what they called specialing, so if we had someone with dementia come in or an elderly person, a lot of times their memory doesn't work properly, so they get very confused. There was some alcoholics. It was just one heck of an interesting job.

Then about two years ago, I just decided I'd have a change of life and then the little Duck Pond Cafe come up and I thought, yeah, a whole change of scenery. That'd be nice. So hence then I just happened to say to Will one day if you ever want to sell out, make sure I'm the first one you tell and it was only a matter of months later that he said he was closing down and I said, no, you're not because I want to buy it. So I went from nursing to a cafe and I love it. Just love it.

It's much like nursing, only in hospital your customers are usually in pajamas or hospital gowns. You still get people from across the board. People that want to say hello, have a chat. You know the ones that are in a hurry, you sort of try to jump their coffee over the queue but most people when they come in, they'll order a coffee, step back pull out their phone, have a chat to the next person. To meet people over coffee is one of the best things you can do. It's a time where you actually put your phone away and actually sit and talk to somebody. If we did more of that, they'd be less stress, less rage. Life would be a lot simpler I think.

I can see myself doing this for long time yet because I've made some absolute wonderful friends and customers. Honestly, over the last few weeks while we were setting up, we were averaging up to 40 a day walking past asking, “How much longer to go? When are you opening? You're going to be open this week?” It was great to see on our first morning, they all rolled up. As soon as they saw the gates open, they were here. And I thought, one, that's good friendship, and two, that's loyalty. So you can't ask for better than that. It's just perfect. Really.