I come from a long line of story tellers and teachers and my grandmother was the greatest of them all. Through her example, I learned about the power of our story to shape identity, establish history and continue family legacy. Each time she shared a story with me I was reminded not just about where I came from, but how our family became who we are today. My story begins in Sou....
I grew up in a family that was fractured and dysfunctional. My earliest memories are of my parents’ fighting. My father had a gambling addiction and both my parents struggled with drugs and alcohol. We never seemed to have any money. I remember my grandmother regularly giving my mother money to buy groceries. I became a surrogate mum to my younger brother as parenting was ver....
It’s 19 May, 2016. Tomorrow, I’ll be 50. And here I am, alone, sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I’m in the spare room of the house I own. Across the hallway in the master bedroom, my ex-husband and his fiancée are sleeping peacefully. In my bed. As I look up at the ceiling, I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I realise with every cell of my body that I’ve genuine....
They say your twenties are the years of uncertainty and messiness but also of opportunity and discovering who you truly are. My own journey has been far from smooth sailing, but then again, who’s journey ever is. I am now at a point in my life, where I can look back on all those uncertain and messy moments and be thankful for them. They have led me to where I am right now. Wr....
It began with predatory stares. My young thigh, catatonic glances, his scary blue eyes that turned from my gaze less and less. Glares mutated to creaks on stairs, and those young and tender years when other girls whispered of crushes, were to me, filled with felonies in the night. He wasn’t my real father, but was to protect me as if he were. If he could hurt me, then w....
