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after-school function where schoolmates picked a partner to do various team events with in the assembly hall. There must have been an uneven number in the class because at the end of the pairing-off the only person left sitting all alone was me! I made an excuse to leave the room and ran across all of the school sports fields and out of the school grounds, crying so much that I felt my heart would truly break. Why did NO ONE like me? I couldn’t catch my breath. So no more school that day! I caught a tram to the city and bought some crisps and Marella jubes and went and to see Debbie Reynolds in The Mating Game at the Metro Cinema in Collins Street. Debbie did the trick but I felt so totally friendless after the movie that I made my way home slowly, escaping into a magazine about my favourite television stars of the day, the Mouseketeers , whom I would later get to know quite well. When I did, I found them so welcoming, living up to the last line of their theme song, ‘ Y? Because we like you!’
    Dad and Mum were both given the chance at this time to foster two little Aboriginal children from a Catholic orphanage for a few months, starting early December and over the Christmas period. It was a rescue situation. The little boy was almost four years old and the little girl was about eighteen months. I cannot describe to you how beautiful these children were, especially the little girl. She had huge dark eyes and she loved all of us. The little boy, too, was gorgeous but had obviously not been exposed to very much affection or physical contact. For some reason he fell totally in love with Dad, even called him ‘ Daddy’ ! Dad responded splendidly - carried him everywhere, involved him in all kinds of wondrous children’s activities and was very tactile with him, which made me envious because I had always yearned for that type of contact. Mum, being in love with babies, treated the beautiful little baby girl as if she were her own flesh and blood. She slept with her at night and was forever giving her the stroking and secure feelings of being loved and needed, which it seemed up to that time the little girl had never experienced. It was working out so well that Mum and Dad were starting to think of applying for adoption or at the very least permanent fostering. Christmas arrived and we all sat in tears of joy watching these two little children open presents they had never had or even seen before. Suddenly out of the blue we had a call from the orphanage saying the children’s parents were demanding that the children be returned to them. We had no choice but to obey. The children were not even allowed to keep their Christmas presents, apparently because there were other children in the family who had no gifts at all. I have never forgotten the sight of the little boy almost physically glued to Dad’s leg; screaming for his ‘Daddy’ to please not send him away. Dad and Mum, Jenny and I were inconsolable. The only other time I saw Dad so desperately upset was when his father passed away.
    I’m quite certain that losing those two magnificent children was one of the deciding factors in my parents trying to have a new baby, for not long after Mum fell pregnant with my sister Patsy. Patsy was a great gift for me. She seemed to really care about me. Mum and Dad doted on her and the dynamics once again changed in our family because my other sister, Jenny, and I no more than tolerated each other - no two people could be more opposite! She adored Dad whilst he and I were like poison ivy to each other, which saddens me now. But he did have a huge cross to bear, with his son who just didn’t seem to fit in... anywhere !
    Looking back, it seems that although I had so much potential to do almost anything, my shyness, stammer and total lack of confidence almost buried me. Certainly, it buried my spirit for a long time but I guess it was all meant to be, because today I am a much stronger, though