Heavenly Beverley : How I Became A Human Of the Wheatbelt...

I have been waiting my entire life to come here to Beverley and it has been a long journey. When I was young my parents moved us from Melbourne to Brisbane to Sydney. I finally moved to Perth with my first husband in 1982.

My parents were gypsies and not in a good sense. My mother suffered severely from mental health issues and committed suicide at the advanced age of 87. My mother was from the generation of women who said, “You can never be too thin or too rich.”

I have three brothers and all of us rely completely on our sense of humour. All my brothers have children and they have all turned out okay.

Later in life, I suffered heavily from mental health issues myself and I remember once being told by a health professional that I married far too young at the age of 19. My first husband and I were married for twenty-six years and when we tried to have children, we were hit with a series of disasters. I’ve had seven babies, six pregnancies, five C-Sections but only three surviving babies.

My daughter Vanessa is a divine, intelligent young woman. I had a son named Christopher who passed away from heart complications forty-eight days after he was born. After that, I lost my twins and you know, you don’t ever get over something like that. I have a special compartment in my heart and that is where the children live and always will. Next came Callum, he is thirty now and has provided me with delight from day one.

When Alex came along, he was diagnosed with a very complex heart defect, similar to what Christopher had. I was lucky that a doctor named Luigi D’orsogna had recently arrived back to Perth from studying abroad and he was able to interpret foetal cardiac ultrasound. King Edward hospital was great through all of this. Alex is twenty-eight now and is diagnosed with just a mild intellectual disorder and autism. Every year was more excitement with Alex. The ABA Discreet Child Training worked beautifully for Alex and absolutely was the key to him blossoming.

I have three fabulous and quirky children and I love them too bits and I also have a grandbaby on the way.

I left my husband in 2005 and returned to my family in Queensland. It went pear-shaped right away, but we really learn from our huge mistakes, don’t we? We came back to W.A and that is when I had a mental breakdown. I was, in fact completely non-functional. Losing my sense of humour was the scariest part of my breakdown. But I got it back. I was medicated and am medicated still.

The black dog comes nipping at my heels, but he goes away. I write my blogs and I use my humour in my writing, I have never been published but have tried to publish.

In 2009 I met Michael who was widowed. I fell in love with him the moment I looked into his eyes. A year after we met Michael’s health broke down. He was diagnosed with Pneumonia, emphysema and asthma and he was unable to go back to work. We all lived in my duplex. Michael and I, the three children, three dogs, a cat, three weiros, one toilet and one bathroom. I sold the house eventually and we moved to the country without the kids.

My children have had their own adventures along the way, some bad and some good. Michael and I were married in our backyard in Beverley and as we had no money, people were instructed to bring their own meat, chairs, drinks and friends made salads and the wedding cake as wedding presents. I had my own version of a wedding planner in Ailsa and Lesley was my Matron of Dishonour. Stinking hot but the greatest day of our lives.

There have always been a lot of good days to contrast the dark ones. Going to the Goldfields was a great time. We bought the house in Beverley and put in half an acre of a garden as part of our healing process. Then Michael fell in love with the old Forbes building in the centre of town that eventually became our art gallery.

We realised how lucky we were the minute we arrived here. Beverley is very welcoming. Straight away we discovered all these different people that, like us, had run away from the big smoke and so we formed this eclectic group of fascinating people that we are privileged to call our friends and have become our family.

If I had the advice to give someone younger than myself based on all that I have been through it would be to always look for that other door. Keep your sense of humour. Don’t be afraid to use the “F” word. If you can grab a golden moment and just hang on to it until the next golden moment, you’ll be able to keep living and keep laughing.