I grew up in the outback on a farm in a little town called Hillston which is on the edge of the desert. There was only one school there which I went to up to Year 11.
It’s a different environment growing up in the country. People in the country are salt of the earth, really honest and friendly. I loved the fact that I grew up in the country, riding round in the back of the ute.
I left and did the traditional thing you did in the 80’s which was secretarial school at Griffith Tafe. Shorthand and book keeping and all that stuff I don’t use any of. I ended up meeting my partner at the time, he was from the Turkish Community and we had three children together. We moved around a bit including Melbourne and the outback. We ended up buying a house back in Hillston.
He passed away when the children were very small. My son was 6 months, my daughter was 2 1/2 and my eldest daughter was 4. I threw myself into being a mum. We stayed in Hillston. My Dad who had lost his leg through diabetes moved back in with me and the kids which was lovely for a while.
In about 1997 a friend got a job at Kyogle as the Principal of the Catholic School. We were really good mates so I told her the kids and I would come up for a visit. We jumped on a train and came to Kyogle. It was when the Fairymount Festival was on and that was it. We just fell in love with Kyogle. We were only supposed to stay for 2 weeks but we stayed for a month.
I went back to Hillston and put the house on the market. I wanted my kids to have a better opportunity in life and there’s not a lot to offer in the country. It took about 12 months to sell. We ended up here in Kyogle and it was the best thing I ever did. That was 1999. I fell in love with it. It’s such a friendly town, beautiful atmosphere and it was green. I had so much dust in my life growing up and I was over it. I met some great people and the kids loved it.
I enrolled in an Arts course at Tafe and was accepted which blew me away because I didn’t think I would. I’ve always drawn and painted since childhood. I ended up with a Diploma of Fine Arts. Before we moved up here I’d worked in the local supermarket, cleaned houses, daycare, dabbled in Ebay which made my bread and milk money. About 7 years ago my Mum moved to Ballina so that’s been great to have family close by. I have 2 brothers living in Brisbane.
Luckily for me a friend of mine worked at RED Inc and invited me to come along and meet Jenny London who was the manager at the time and one of the most gorgeous people you could ever meet. I was lucky enough to get a job. I started in support work and got my Cert 4, actually my Diploma, progressed from there and now I’m Operations Manager and I oversee art exhibitions all that sort of stuff, organise staff and day to day happenings.
All my children have left home now. One lives in Brisbane, one’s just moved to the Gold Coast, My eldest daughter has been living in Indonesia for nearly a year.
About 5 years ago I was away with some girlfriends and doing the whole jokey thing about getting a date. They registered me online on one of the dating sites and I thought I would just go home and delete it. Anyway, one fellow sent a message and a photo and I was like, Well hello there! Long story short, we got together which was something I didn’t see coming and we are together still. He is just magic. He is like my soul mate so that’s amazing for me. I used to always get Mothers Day and Fathers Day cards because it was always just me so it was nice for my kids too. I am so proud of my kids. My goal was to try and raise good humans, good adults and they all are just gorgeous.
Being in a relationship has been interesting after being on my own for 20 years. It’s been very different for me learning to be in a relationship with someone who is really loving, caring and giving. His name is Greg and he’s opened my life to other things too. He rides a motorbike so I now have my own motorbike. I never thought I’d be doing bike trips in my middle age but we do. His world has opened up new joys for me. We are like the Brady Bunch. I have 1 boy and 2 girls and has 2 boys and 1 girl. It’s a bit cute. I want to do a photo of all of us. We are both into the same things.
One of my exciting passions for RED Inc is the artists and as an artist myself we get so caught up with the process of creating art. The Northern Rivers is flooded with artists. One of the things that the artists in RED Inc have taught me is just to let go and do it. Do what makes you feel good. That’s what they do and I feel privileged to work with the guys in that environment. I love seeing them create these beautiful works with the outcome of having an exhibition. They have been exhibiting for years now and they go into art comps. Their work gets sent overseas. One of our indigenous artists had her artwork on the ANZ credit card a few years ago. We had an exhibition at The Lone Goat Gallery a couple of weeks ago which was fabulous. They are great supporters of us. All our artists are mentored by professional artists. We currently have Renee Bolton who is a world renowned artist. It’s not all abstract which people think somebody with a disability might do. Some of the work is so intricate and expressive. Nathan Gooley had an exhibition at The Regional Gallery. They are all so inspirational.”