| Summary |
Sue Henthorn talks about having no memory of early home life; her earliest memories, her and siblings, Stephen, Paul and Toni being placed the orphanage and babies home; her memories of the Ballarat Orphanage, grounds, buildings, routines, dormitories; sibling contact; orphanage food; eating disorders; staff food; health checks, vaccinations; nursing staff; teenage carers; Indigenous children and their treatment; orphans and institutionalised children; bath time and hair washing; canings and belting; behaviour of adults at the orphanage; personal hygiene among children, clothing and footwear; Stephen running away from Orphanage and subsequent treatment; mother's visits to orphanage; nurse carers and abuse; institutional timetable and routine; their schooling, outside the orphanage; games at the orphanage; Guy Fawkes night; pocket money; religious instruction; funeral services; the bond between the Stevens children; the annual trip to Queenscliff holiday camp; leaving the orphanage, living in Brunswick, mother's home; local criminal gangs; her High school education (1970s); starting work at fourteen and a half; Stephen’s apprenticeship as carpenter; reasons for moving houses; meeting grandmother and father.
Henthorn discusses her working life, achievements and success; leaving home; sibling drug taking; her first husband, his work and children; the Newcastle earthquake; after effects of an accident; moving to Perth; work and life ambitions; breakup of marriage; home ownership and meeting second husband; moving to Sydney and then to Perth; her role as a mother; the death of her brother Stephen; a change of career, becoming a marriage celebrant (2004); death of her mother and her funeral; working as a funeral celebrant, planning a funeral; music; writing poetry and about her life; discovering and applying to join CLAN (Care Leavers Australia Network); the National apology; applying for funding to go to a reunion in Victoria; getting and reading own files; discovering the length of stay in the orphanage; talking about past with brother, Paul; writing memoirs; attending the First Anniversary of the National Apology; the relevance of own story; Western Australian Government and redress; sibling’s dealing with the past; the Ballarat reunion and the benefits; Open University course; CLAN, being a part of inquiries into suicides; reading a poem about the unmarked graves and unidentified babies.
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