Wendy Jansen

I was born at The Mater Hospital on the North Shore of Sydney. My husband was born at the same hospital. I grew up in a dilapidated old terrace house which was such an embarrassment that even though the bus stop was outside my house I would get off the school bus the stop before so people wouldn’t see which house I was going in to. We rented, it was the same house my Dad rented when he was a child and he lived there for 50 years.

 

I have an older brother and sister. People used to think my brother and I were twins. We had the same friends and that’s where I met my husband Albie. He was my brother’s best mate. We met when I was 17 and we went out for 6 months but decided we were just very good friends so we hung out and he introduced me to my first husband. Albie came to my wedding and I went to his wedding. We both got divorced the same time and supported each other through our divorces and then got together again in the year 2000. That was a significant year for me because after I left my first husband I bought a one bedroom house on the North Shore for $165,000 near Hornsby. Eventually Albie moved in.

 

With my first husband I was told I couldn’t have children so we went through IVF. Albie knew that when we got together but the first time we tried I fell pregnant. In my 20s I suffered extreme Endometriosis and every period I was in hospital. After the 3 kids I had a hysterectomy and a bowel resection due the Endo wrapped around the bowel. I felt like a new woman.

 

We decided we didn’t want to raise our family in Sydney so we moved to Yepoon near Rockhampton. We bought a 25 acre Macadamia Farm and we were pretty naive to buy a farm, leave family and friends and have a baby. We had two more kids, identical twin girls who were 28 weeks premie. We had to go to Brisbane and live in the Ronald Macdonald House for 3 months with a 2 year old boy. Our son was diagnosed with Kawasaki’s disease so I had 3 kids in hospital and then coming back to rural, remote Central QLD was tough and so isolating. I had post-natal depression but I realise it was very circumstantial.

 

We decided to move back to the Northern Rivers so we were closer to family and friends here in Lismore but also closer to family in Sydney. We moved to Uki for a while but then found some land in Lillian Rock and our kids went to Barker’s Vale School. We did a lot of volunteering as a family with the RFS and in the school. I loved gardening so we built sheds and raised garden beds in the school and I would have lessons with kids around sustainable gardening. Our kids then went on to Trinity Catholic College which was a big trip from home but that was their social scene, on the bus every day. It was hard for us to get work from out there.

 

In 2000 I had also done a Post Grad in Expressive Therapies so I wanted to use that for art therapies. I also did a Diploma of Horticulture as my passion is Horticulture therapy by bringing the garden to life and being a safe place for kids to be able to express themselves. My business was The Wendy House and my tag line was ‘Creating a safe place to grow’ As a kid my safe place was The Wendy House which is a cubby house.

 

Not being able to get much work I decided to go back to Uni and I did a Bachelor of Social Welfare because I just wanted to get work I love. My first placement was with Social Futures for 3 months. When the 3 months was up I said to my manager, I’m not leaving. I continued on volunteering and eventually got casual work and a position came up for a new pilot program for a social worker in schools. I loved it and I was supporting vulnerable families in the school environment. That was 2018.

 

In 2019 I fell down a hole brush-cutting and broke my ankle in 3 places and dislocated it 2 weeks before Covid hit so I was like the guinea pig for working from home, in my wheelchair. The pilot program was so successful, we expanded and went into more schools and employed more of me. In 2022 just before the floods I was promoted to team leader.

 

The flood happened on my birthday. We had moved from Lillian Rock to Broadwater 6 months before the flood. We always wanted to live on a river so our backyard backed onto the Richmond River. In the 1954 flood we were told it came 2 feet into the downstairs but otherwise safe. On the day we thought we were prepared. We sandbagged 3 feet high and brought everything upstairs, sat down and cracked a beer and thought, We’ve got this! Overnight the apocalypse hit and rose 3 metres. It hit our beds upstairs. The river was roaring. The SES took my girls and me and a bag each. My son and Albie got in our tinnie and went up to Rileys Hill and we stayed with Kylie Maunder. She was our angel and we stayed with her for a week until the water receded enough to get out. We couldn’t go home but a friend rented us a unit in Ballina for 6 months. We were so very lucky. On weekends we started the rebuild.

 

The Broadwater community were amazing. We had community dinners, we had the food pantry in the hall, all our neighbours helped each other out with the cleaning and building. We are still all close and we are still rebuilding. After 20 months of living out of a toiletries bag, I now finally have a bathroom.

 

Because that happened on my birthday and on Albie’s birthday in August our son was in hospital for 3 weeks with Hep A and he was really sick. The girls were doing their HSC the same year as the flood and they turned 18 in the July and they wanted a party in their home so we moved back. It wasn’t ready but we had a makeshift kitchen and we made it work. After all that Albie and I decided that every birthday we would go away. We are still rebuilding but it’s important for our mental health. We’ve stuck with it and been to NZ and Tasmania and we are really close. He’s my best friend.

 

We are still big volunteers. I’m the President of the Broadwater Community Gardens, starting from scratch. I’m also on the Broadwater Koala Reserve Committee. All my kids and Albie are RFS members and have been Firies since the kids were 16. My Mum is 89 soon and still volunteers at Lifeline 2 days a week. She’s my hero.

 

Lismore has my heart. It’s where I work, it’s where my kids went to school, It’s been through it’s struggles and I’m just watching it come back to life again.

 

Now I’m a team leader of 8. That’s my passion and I still love my job at Social Futures. When our rebuilding at home is done I want to write a course and facilitate Horticulture Therapy. Before the flood I would write, I would journal, I would paint and draw and I’ve not been creative since. This I think is a catalyst for me to be telling someone my story. I haven’t seen a Counsellor or told my story so I think I needed to do this so I can move forward.”

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WENDY love from our HOL community x