MY MOTHERS LIFE STORY Essay Research Paper

BY KRISTY HEWITT 11B

TOPIC: THE LIFE STORY OF MY MOTHER.

AUDIENCE: People who like to read biographies.

PURPOSE: To inform people of what life for the less fortunate can be like.

Being one of seven children and being left by both parents had a huge impact on the way my mother?s life has unfolded.

In her early years, before the age of five, she was one of seven children running wild in the streets of Broadmeadows. Her father was in the military and was not home very much. Her mother, now she can?t really remember to much about her, however she can remember the abuse and neglect that was dealt out in her first years of life. She has many reminders of those days, she has a burn on top of her right arm that was caused by hot water spilling over her. She also had stitches in the back of her head after a bad fall. She was stealing from the local supermarket, to this day she doesn?t really know how she got away with it maybe no one thought a five-year-old would do such a thing. She was constantly in trouble in one way or another.

One day during her first year at school all of her family came home for lunch only to find a neighbour waiting to tell them they were not allowed to go into their own home, this did not make much sense to her at the time. She later found out her mother had separated from her father and had taken up with a man with criminal record. He skipped bail taking her mother with him; she sold everything of any value to neighbours the night before. The money from this was their way to escape. They ran off leaving seven children from the ages of 15 months to 11 years, she never saw of heard from her again until after she was married. The police became involved and they became wards of the state. They were then all taken to Alambi a place for temporary care, they were there for about 4 months. During this time she was very sick and was sent to Fairfield infectious disease hospital with scarlet fever. Soon after this her older two brothers were sent to Burwood boys home and the rest of them went to East Camberwell Salvation Army children?s home. She stayed at that children?s home for about 3 years, they were all well provided for. The people who looked after them took a special interest in her family and tried to keep them together as much as possible, they even kept them in touch with their older brothers in the boy?s home. They were then shifted to cottages at Box Hill, which was again run by the Salvation Army. They were put into a family situation with two cottage parents Graham and Barbara Coward, they were now a family of 12. Whilst in their care she went to Sunday school and two services every Sunday, she was in the Junior Soldiers, singing company, timberals and what ever else was available to her at the time. At fifteen she committed herself to become a senior soldier of her church. She basically had a lot to thank god for then, only she didn?t know how much. Over the years she found that some of her friends were less fortunate than herself, one girl Donna fell pregnant at 14 and another girl she knew ended up in prison.

At sixteen she met Garry who was from a caring Salvation Army family. They were married two years later and soon followed their first child Kristy-lee. This was her first real sense of security. Their own home, someone who loved her and of course her child. She thought she had it all, many times she was told she was too young to get married and that she was getting married for all the wrong reasons, but the more they told her the more determined she became. They are still happily married today 17 yrs later.

This determination seemed to drive her in everything she did. Her first job was a machinist in a factory. After seven years she became a shop assistant and worked her way up the ladder to become department manager. From there she landed a job as a sales rep and then quickly became an overseas buyer for an importing company. This was a very demanding job as she would travel to China, The Philippines and Hong Kong at least three times a year. She knows that her family suffered a lot during this time, She was constantly having early morning starts and late finishes. Work always seemed to come first. She can remember on one occasion forgetting to arrange someone to pick Kristy up from school, it wasn?t until the school rang an hour later did she realize what she had done. She was so focused on work everything else went out the window. Sometime during this she stopped going to church, life just got so hectic.

It?s wasn?t until after the death of her father that she started to take a good look at herself. It got her thinking about many things. Her father did not really conform with her idea of what a father should be, he was never there whilst she was growing up, and in later day?s he would spend most of his time in the local pub. She really didn?t have much in common with him and nor did she have much time for him either. It was not until she had to organize his funeral and clean up his affairs that she found out many things about him, he really did care about them. When she was going through his personal belongings she found that he had kept everything that she had ever given him. She was truly sorry that he had to die with no family close to him and she never gave him a chance to make up for the past. She now realizes that life can be very short, we don?t know what?s ahead, so in the future she?s going to forgive and forget and get on with life.