Talk about your six degrees of separation and how much the Internet has shrunk the world, my story about how three Australians tried to find after 47 years a former Willoughby girl became a bit personal.

Highlights of the story included how one of the Australians wrote to The News-Herald, seeking the whereabouts of a Betty Jo Kerr. This young lady and the three Aussies spent an October, 1963 week together in Venice, Italy. They even swam (illegally) the city's famed Grande Canal.

After a week passed they parted company. But when the three Australia men were reminiscing recently about their 1963 adventure they wondered whatever happened to Betty Jo.

I wrote a story about their desire to make second contact when lo and behold, a long-time friend of Betty Jo's called and gave to me the contact information to now-named Betty Jo Kerr DeBusschere; a retired college professor, wife and mother of two daughters.

Well, Betty Jo said she sometimes remembered her encounters with the Australians and even visited their country for a few months while on a two-year-long backpacking walkabout of the world.

She also had - way been back in the early 60s - a permanent substitute teacher at then-called Eastlake Junior High School. As these strange events began to unfold it included the fact that I attended Eastlake Junior High School right around the same time Betty Jo Kerr DeBusschere taught there.

Yikes. This is just a little too coincidental; like something out of a "Lost" episode...

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com