Adelaide and the Green Pickle
Without Prejudice
I wasn't talking that much to Yvette, my second oldest daughter, when she returned from Queensland with Simon. Simon was off the wall and I knew it and I had to be cruel to be kind. She had the 4 boys in tow and I knew she was living at Simon's house, his Mum had moved out. The place was a nightmare. I ignored Kyle's birthday which hurt me but I had to stay strong to help her.
My Dad's wife, my step mum, Margaret, had been a psychiatric nurse and nursed a lot of drug affected people. She said you have to wait until they ask you for help. So I waited and waited and called in on Xmas day. No sign of Simon and Yvette was feeding the kids hot dogs for Christmas Dinner.
I gave her some money and presents for the boys. The house was a nightmare, dirty and messed up. I went off to my Christmas dinner and thought about Yvette and the kids. I went back and took her to my place a cute little cottage in Noble Park North. We spent sometime together and I took her back to that nightmare of a house. Not saying much or expressing disgust or horror.
A few days later she rang
"I'm leaving him, can you come and get me and the kids."
So I did. She was rail thin, her face covered in acne and she vomited as she told me what had been going on. Vomited and vomited and cried. I just let her talk and we concentrated on getting the kids settled. I lived on my own and had 3 bedrooms and a big back yard.
Kyle was 10, Zach 5, Brock 3 and Jai 2. I told her not to give out the phone number and we got on with getting her well. She wasn't there long before Alena, my youngest daughter called and said Simon had been beaten and horribly. Alena was crying. I wouldn't go get him so Alena and Yvette brought him to the house much to my disgust. He looked like the elephant man, unrecognisable.
His head was swollen to twice its size, black eyes and cuts. He had jumped through a closed window to get away from the two men that had come to find him. he knew they were coming and why. They had baseball bats. His Mum.P, gave him a one way ticket to Adelaide and he took off. Shortly after he rang and begged Yvette to join him there. A fresh start.
Simons Mum paid for bus tickets for Yvette and the boys and she also took off. With some money to start over. She arrived with the kids at a motel and things were alright for two days and then Simon disappeared. Just disappeared. Yvette said he had been testing car door handles. And when she rang Debbie and I she said that she had a feeing in her gut he was locked up.
She also said he would be using a false name, Chris Maxwell. So Debbie and I sat down with a phone book and rang every police station in Adelaide. And on the last one, the 18th we hit pay dirt. Yes, they had a Chris Maxwell there. Deb had told them what was going on and the copper walked into Simons cell and said,
"Hallo, Simon"
Yvette returned home to me with the kids and we started sorting out her and the boys. It was a tough ask as Yvette was a mess. The boys remained fine and they were our first concern. It was still school holidays and I had to work. There wasn't a day I didn't come home when there wasn't something broken or messed up. Jai decided to put a banana in the video, Brock stuck a knife in a power socket and booted himself across the other side of the room.
It was fun and games for a while and we decided to push to get Yvette housed by the Ministry Of Housing. We had all the processes set in place and then Simon rang. (Had I not told her to not give him the number ? ). He had served some time and was now with an ex prisoner and his wife at a country town in South Australia.
The man Simon was staying with and his wife came on the phone and said Yvette and the boys should come over. They were prepared to help him and her and the kids. So with much misgivings I let her go. We continued to work on getting her a house and we were frantic about it. We, being Deb, Alena, Mara, and I and we worked on it and worked on it.
Yvette rang a few times and things were OK for a while, a short while. Unbeknownst to us she had moved out to a Caravan park on the edge of town. Brock had asthma bad and the little kids lips were turning blue with the cold she said later. She had to light the gas rings to keep them warm.
One night Kyle was so sick with flu and he begged her to call the police on his Dad. Yvette had bought a car for $500. Simon had taken it and Yvette had no idea where it or he was. But she figured he had to be in the town somewhere. She told Kyle to pack up everything and take care of the kids. She called the Police and they found the car and took the rotor button out so Simon couldn't drive it and handed it to Yvette.
She walked along the dark road in the early hours of the morning, foggy and cold and raining, black as black, said, later. She was crying and asked Lauren her sister who had died at 12, for help. In fact she changed it to begging and just asked her for help to get the boys home She wasn't concerned for herself but just begged Lauren to get the boys home.
A car appeared beside her. An older man delivering papers,
"Want some help", he asked.
Yvette is a prickly person and doesn't trust easily but she hopped in and the man asked her if she was ok. She blurted out the whole story and he took her around all the streets till they spotted the car. Yvette had dubbed it the Green Pickle.
She hopped out and this car she had discovered would start with a pair of scissors jammed in the ignition. Her saviour stayed with her. But first she had to put the rotor button back in. She did this amazing feat in the dark shaking with cold, got the car started and took off to fetch the boys, feeling like Simon was right behind her.
They frantically packed the car and Yvette took off to Melbourne, feeling like The Hound Of The Baskervilles were on her heels. She knew how angry Simon would be when he found the car gone. She rang me half way,
"I can't stop the car, I have to keep it running, what do I do when I have to fill up with petrol?'
She was terrifed. I said to keep it running while she filled up and to just drive, stay awake and just drive. I offered up prayers of my own at that stage.
She drove and drove and the car conked out right around the corner from my place. Never to go again. The RACV man said it was a miracle it had made it, the rotor button thingy was put on upside down. But Yvette and the boys were back and Yvette was in a bad way. We packed two of the boys off to St Gerards Primary School ASAP and the two little ones I got put in Family Day Care.
Yvette wasn't happy about the boys being in Family Day Care,
"No bloody Indain Bitch is looking after my F*****g kids", she said.
"I can look after my own f******** Kids"
But I gently persuaded her to at least meet Raylene, the day care lady and she loved her and vice versa and to this day Yvette still takes the kids there to see her. Jai, was 2 and now 14. All the boys love her and she was so good to Yvette and I. The biggest thing she did was have them overnight every Friday night, giving us a huge break from them. They were full on, typical boys, bouncing, jumping, yelling, hitting and teasing wach other.
We sent them out to play once at the local park. Zach and Kyle and Kyle came home and was upset and when I asked him what was wrong he said that the kids at the park said he wore funny clothes. Poor clothes. From that day to this Kyle is always immaculate, hair always straightened, and always new clothes. That careless remark had stung him badly. Even at 10.
Yvette slept for 3 weeks and we just let her. I gave her my room which was cool and dark and she slept the clock around. Sometimes I stood at the door and paryed she was still breathing.Then one day around Easter she came out of the room with a tooth in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. She grinned at me. Her mouth full of blood.
"It was hurting, so I took it out"
She was also gouging at her face and picking at her eyes. When I saw the tooth, that was it.
I called the CAT team and they were there within minutes and came everyday for a month. She was sedated and put on meds to help her and she was counselled and allowed to talk and talk. The kids were fine. Kyle at 10 went on the bus every day taking Zach 5, with him. I would drop off the little boys 3 and 2 to Raylene, our beautiful Day Care lady, who would open the front door for me in the dark. And I would go off to work, work all day and come home with the boys and a sleeping sedated Yvette.
Once she was stabilised I decided to somehow work on her self esteem. She hated her face and so did the boys. Kyle said he wanted his pretty Mum back, and at that Yvette cried, and raked her fingernails down her face, making it bleed. so I gave her the car, my car, Every day she would drop me off at Cheltenham from Noble Park and pick me up again at night. She got a referral o a skin specalist and he put her on Roaccutane, a severe drug that works on acne really well.
Sheets of skin would peel from her hands and feet and she had to have dry skin ointment and lip balm and sign a 12 month contract that she would npt fall pregnant, but she didn't care. Her skin was starting to clear on her face, the big bumps and open sores healing and disappearing. The drug that they put her on for her mania caused her to get "Witches Milk" and she had to go off it. But she was recovering and fast.
We never heard from Simon, but we heard through the grapevine he had gone on the run, interstate somewhere, maybe Sydney. We had a house for her in 3 months which was astonishingly lucky as the waiting lists were years long. Mara pushed exceptionally hard and had a friend at the Salvation Army, John, who was unbelievable. he wrote letters on our behalf to the Ministry as did Dr Roger Johnson our family Doctor.
The day she was housed was fantastic, and the odd thing was it was a house that Mandy, Simon's sister had once lived in. It was house with an enormous backyard and a park opposite. My ex husband had to build a temporary fence out the front to stop Jai escaping and running on the road. the boys were settled and happy and Yvette began to run her own show for once.
She picked out a runt from a litter of pups, German Sheperds, that my ex husband had, Bonnie, and she became Yvette's everything, her protector, amusement, her "Girl". Bonnie soon grew and had a particular habit of climbing a tree at the park and sitting aloft in the branches like a cat. We heard no more from Simon only rumours. He was here he was there, somehow we always knew where he was.
The little house was cute and great for Yvette's and the boys. The boys made friends in the neighbourhood and Brock and Jai began school at Dandy West which was a fantastic school and within walking distance. Kyle and Zach continued at St Gerards and did really well. Then Simon came back. Yvette fell pregnant again and by the time the baby was born 5 weeks prem he was back on the "gear", heroin.
He had taken off for Perth to try and get clean and Yvette and the kids soon followed.Once again there was not going to be a "Fresh Start", like Adelaide, the whole dreary scene was back to the same. Simon on drugs and Yvette pissed off and wanting to go home.
One hot day at the motel they were staying at, Yvette had to plunge into the pool , she was on crutches from a badly sprained ankle. People were all around and no one was helping. So Yvette put her crutches down and plunged in to the pool, carefully holding her pregnant belly and rescued Jai. Who was going doen for the 3rd time and was blue in the face. He grabbed on to her and said one word,
"Mum"
Yvette was 7 and a half months pregnant. Within teo hours of her plunge into the pool her waters started to leak, not rupture but leak. Yvette knew what wa happening and grabbed Siomon, shook him awake and said,
Get me home", teeth gritted.
"I am not having this baby here I am having this baby in Melbourne"
"GET ME HOME< NOW !"
And to Simons credit he moved heaven and earth to get her home. Hired a ute loaded all their stuff and took off for the aiport. It was roaring hot but Yvette put on a coat to hide her pregnant belly and boarded the plane with Simon and the boys. She tried not to look like she was in labour. Pains were intermittent and not sharp.
I happened to call past their house the day they arrived home and they were stnding in the front yard. Alena had rung Yvette then rung the Hospital and Yvette was to go and now. The hospital said the plunge in the pool at the motel had probably allowed bacteria to enter the uterus and ruptured the hind waters. So they hooked her up to a drip and started pumping hormones into her to really start labour. Baby was 5 weeks early and in distress.
The day Kyan was born Alena had already had Simon thrown out of the Hospital and the whole place got to hear why. Alena roared at Simon. He was off his dial and weaving all over the place and he took Yvette's eftpos card and car and disappeared before the birth. Yvette insisted we ring the School and get Kyle to walk to the hospital. Which he did and he was just in time to see Kyan his baby brother born.
It was a real moment for Kyle, as the baby's head was crowning I covered Yvette's nether regions in modesty and he was able to see the head appear. The head just resting there outside Yvette's body for 30 secinds and then the whole body came slithering out in a rush. Kyle cried a little, seeking refuge at the window and looking out. We all cried as Kyan was so tiny, no bigger than a loaf of bread. 4 and a half pounds.But alive and well.
Yvette was madder than a cut snake that Simon had her card and car and we were able to cancel one and get the other back with a few threats to Simon. I went back to Yvette's house and found him there trying to get the car started and I ripped out the battery and he took off on foot. He didn't bother to go see Yvette he went to score at Springvale.
Kyan had complications within 2 days of birth. He started presenting bile and they did a barium meal and there seemed to be a blockage in his bowel. So he was tranported to Monash from Dandenong by ambulance and Yvette and I foillowed. Once again she was staying with me. Kyan had to have an operation, scheduled for Midnight. he was so little. And 2 days old.
Yvette and I went before midnight to see him before his operation. The doctors explained they would be opening him up and having a look see. Yvette and I were so scared we couldn't even cry as he was wheeled in his humidicrib to the lift. We jusr stood silent. I said,
"he's in the hands of God now and Lauren"
and we murmured a little prayer. We were both beyond exhausted. I wondered what size instruments they used on baby whose head you could cup in your hand.We went back to the boys and my house and at 6 am were back at the Hospital. I never forget that morning.
The sun was just beginning to rise outside as we walked into the intensive care part of the Neo Natal unit at Monash. It almost seemed like there was a haze in the room and there he was, lit up in the distance in a giant crib with a halo of haze over it. He was alive and they had found nothing. Whatever had been causing the blockage had gone and he was fine.
"You mean they cut my son open for nothing" Yvette said.
But we could stroke him and touch him through the openings in the crib. Who cared if he had a scar, he was alive and I wanted to grab him and run. Simon was allowed a visit in. He was OK, not too bad. He tried to persuade Yvette to come back to her house and she said no. She wanted him out.
He took off and we didn't hear from him for a while. Yvette would not let him near the house at first but relented a little when he offered to take care of the baby while she was working. Debbie had managed to get Yvette and Mara some casual work at Castle Hampers. I thought it would be good for her, so I managed to get another day care lady who could mind a baby as Raylene was booked out. I would go and fetch the baby at 5.30 am while Yvette and Mara readied themselves for work. Then drop him off to Betty, a lovely Timorese lady.
Then I would take the older boys to school from my place and then go to work. Work all day and then turn around and do the same repeat process. Mara was made a Team Leader at Castle and Yvette was bumped up to Quality Control and they made good money and worked like dogs. As it was leading up to Christmas they would work overtime and weekends as well.
Simon kept reappearing and offering to mind the baby. Yvette trusted him , I didn't. I followed him one day and saw he was in Springvale with the baby in a pusher. One day the baby came back slightly sunburned and a person had thrown a can of drink at Simon and hit the baby. That was it, he was gone and I took over again.
We tried to do normal things with the boys and one Sunday took them to Caribbean Gardens. On our return happy and laughing we saw Simon coming down the street. He was wearing a shiny fifty cents tee shirt and Wung Tu trackies, not a good look and had shaved his head. he looked like Clarence Bickle from the end scenr of "Taxi Driver", a threatening figure but Yvette hopped out of the car and said she would handle it.
I took Brock and Jai with me, leaving Yvette with the baby, Kyan, Zach and Kyle. Simon I found out later went berserk, smashing every window in the house and punching Kyle. who was 11 then when he tried to protect his Mother. Zach ran to the neighbours next door and the lady called the Police. She locked Zach and her son in the house and ran to Yvette's. Yvette was in the front yard with the baby and the lady with a nod from Yvette grabbed the baby and fled.
"I take baby", she said to Simon as he came out to the front Yard and she ran and locked herself in her house.
Simon took off again and the Police couldn't find him. Yvette took out an order on him with the help of a great Police woman. Marie. Marie walked into the city watch house a few days later recognised Simon and had him arrested for assualt on Kyle. Busted big time. He was locked away and a good stint and we finally could get on with our lives.
A few weeks earlier Alena and I had been to the Ministry with Yvette and baby in tow and begged that she be moved to a bigger house and somewhere where Simon could not find her. They laughed at us. And Alena said,
" If anything happens to my Sister and Baby it will be your fault."
And of course it did. And suddenly the Ministry had a new house for Yvette.
In Cranbourne, a 4 bedroom house with 2 toilets and a great big backyard, where she still lives now 7 years later. Mara and I had to work and then move her with a friends help. Luckily the friend had a trailer ! Yvette and the boys had gone down with gastro. Mara and I worked like demons to get her moved and then gave a huge sigh of relief once they were all settled.
Mara was still at Castle finishing off after Christmas. Yvette spread out her little tribe in the new house. Yvette and I talked about sharing a property about then but I was unwilling to be under the same roof as you simply can not have two women sharing a kitchen. We planted trees at the side of the house for privacy, little plants they were then and now they have reached twelve feet at least and we have to trim them down.
And eventually I did decide to come here and live as I found out about a scheme through the Ministry that allowed me a unit in the back yard. My ex who I never hear from unless it's something nasty dubbed it to my Grandson,"her shed" he also refers to me always to the girls as "your Mother,", never my name.
Well Bobby Baby it's some "Shed". I brought his Mum here and she was gobsmacked. And hugged me in delight for me.
Its a 8 metre x 5 metre dwelling. Its huge for one person, with kitched, all new, carpet all new, bedroom with a huge ensuite and lounge room. I had looked it up on the website through the Ministry of Housing. It has steps leading up to it with a tiny porch, then an entry hall leading in to the lounge room. All the fittings are top spec. My friend Sylvia had one put in her back garden for her son who had been injured in a Motor bike accident. She paid the same builder as I had and had her fella at the time do a lot of work himself.
And she had paid $30,000 without white goods and her man doing the bulk of the work. And mine was better. Hers was just one room. She was sorely peed off as she had worked her fingers to the bone to get it and I (as far as she was concerned ) had sat on my ass and recieved a better one. It was true that mine was better but I certainly hadn't sat on my ass to get it.
But thats Sylvia, she is Slovenian, always complaining about something. It was ironic that her son had a terribel motor bike accident a few days later. And instead of renting out the unit to a private person she used it instead for her son. He is unable to work for the rest of his life and she said Vic Roads paid him $800 a weel to sit on his own arse.
He quite freely admits he had been on a 3 day "bender", speed the drug and speed and wet road the culprit that sent him spiralling out of control, shattering his ankle to bits and having to be airlifted to the Alfred within minutes of the accident. Wonder what that bill was ??? Anyway Sylvia and I always fight like that. Syl works for Australia and I swan around like Madam Kafoops having a ball.
She's 9 years older than me and all my life has been saying to me,
"Wait till you are my age" Your arms be dead, you will ache in every joint, balh blah blah. I tune out as I adore her but she loves a whinge.
Normally the units are $70,000 and are moveable to anywhere in Victoria if you have the land. And you don't have to worry about building out roof space as it's classed as transportable. Even though they would have to pull it down and re erect it.
It's mine for life and when I die it goes back to the Ministry for some other deserving soul to have. I love it. I decorate it how I want, full of colour and romance. My bedroom has a brass bed and I cover it in pretty pillows and throws and it is my haven. There are doors everywhere so you can close off parts for warmth or cooling.
Outside as I write Bonnie sleeps in her garden bed right under my window We made it for her when she died. Every day without fail I say Good Morning Darling and Good night to her. She rests now after a good life of 12 years. Years full of running with her boys, chasing balls and being adored by Yvette.
Zach and I took her to her old park when we knew she was dying. We had just come from the vet and she had kindly said it was just a matter of time. But as soon as we neared the park she was whining to be let out. And with our assistance she climbed the tree once more and sat up in the branches and surveyed her domain.
She was so very happy that day and Yvette took her too one last time, too. And then she died a while later, peacefully and in her sleep just as the boys insisted she do. Yvette and I were ready at any stage to call in a vet if she so much as whimpered but she didn't. Brave to the last. At the same time Mandy, Simons sister died aged 39 and we wept for her and we wept for Bonnie. And we stuck together and just let the world wash over us for a while.
At last we were living together in the one spot, the boys welfare our joint concern, Simon is incarcerated again and I don't think he will ever be a non drug addict. He just can't seem to cope with the outside world. When he came back out last time after an 8 month stint, Kyle was very excited. He was up early his girlfriend Mladenka, said, all happy and excited to be going out to pick up his Dad.
Simon had promised all sorts of things to his boys while he was in the "Big House", he was getting another house and taking some of the boys with him and they would get new computers and he would go to work for once. Mladenka said Kyle came back home that night and lay face down on the bed.
"Twelve hours that's all it took", he said to Maladenka.
Twelve hours and he was back on Ice or Shard as they call it. Methamphetamine, 10 times the strength of speed and 10 times the damage. He hadn't even attempted to see the other boys who he had promised so much. But he's a drug addict and a bad one, so Yvette and I had always been realistic about him coming out. We thought his losing his much loved sister, Mandy might have slowed him down. He had been allowed to go to her Funeral in handcuffs, which he thought was just funny.
He looked then like Robert Downey Junior, darkly bearded and short hair. He didn't cry then and said he wasn't going to cry in jail either, he would put his grief on hold until he was free again. The boys, his 5 boys were delighted to see him and see him so well. He was a little weightier than he had been before he went in and looked healthy.
After he was out Yvette saw him one last time. The Father of her sons, who she had loved and tried to help since she had just turned 15 and he 13. Rebels together. She was shocked and upset when she saw him as he looked so thin he was almost transparent. The orbital bone around his eyes showing under neath his skin. He looked sicker than she had ever seen him and she came home and nrealy vomited with fear, sure he would end up dead.
A few days later we heard through the ever trusty grapevine that he was locked up and we both brethed a big sigh of relief. At least he was still alive. Simon seems to have an uncanny knack of being locked up when he is really bad. Yvette says he gets bored after a while, no friends, no family, used all the drugs he can. No one to hang with except people just like him.
Yvette went to his house after she heard he was locked up. The house was about to be boarded up by the Police his Mum had said. A house she bought for him. Yvette said the house was beyond comprehension. One room had a mountain, literally a mountain of washing in it. Rolled up in carpet that had been soaked. There was tape on the floor and writing and a huge concrete hole in the hall. Everything was a mess, the BBQ in the Family room, even the heater had been skewed off the wall.
Yvette and Zach left the house of horrors and drove home. At least he was alive, at least he was safe for the time being. Yvette's concern for the boys if something had happened to him. Not being brave enough to go through another senseless death. We haven't heard from him, but the boys may get some letters full of empty promises. We await developments..........
Love Janette
I wasn't talking that much to Yvette, my second oldest daughter, when she returned from Queensland with Simon. Simon was off the wall and I knew it and I had to be cruel to be kind. She had the 4 boys in tow and I knew she was living at Simon's house, his Mum had moved out. The place was a nightmare. I ignored Kyle's birthday which hurt me but I had to stay strong to help her.
My Dad's wife, my step mum, Margaret, had been a psychiatric nurse and nursed a lot of drug affected people. She said you have to wait until they ask you for help. So I waited and waited and called in on Xmas day. No sign of Simon and Yvette was feeding the kids hot dogs for Christmas Dinner.
I gave her some money and presents for the boys. The house was a nightmare, dirty and messed up. I went off to my Christmas dinner and thought about Yvette and the kids. I went back and took her to my place a cute little cottage in Noble Park North. We spent sometime together and I took her back to that nightmare of a house. Not saying much or expressing disgust or horror.
A few days later she rang
"I'm leaving him, can you come and get me and the kids."
So I did. She was rail thin, her face covered in acne and she vomited as she told me what had been going on. Vomited and vomited and cried. I just let her talk and we concentrated on getting the kids settled. I lived on my own and had 3 bedrooms and a big back yard.
Kyle was 10, Zach 5, Brock 3 and Jai 2. I told her not to give out the phone number and we got on with getting her well. She wasn't there long before Alena, my youngest daughter called and said Simon had been beaten and horribly. Alena was crying. I wouldn't go get him so Alena and Yvette brought him to the house much to my disgust. He looked like the elephant man, unrecognisable.
His head was swollen to twice its size, black eyes and cuts. He had jumped through a closed window to get away from the two men that had come to find him. he knew they were coming and why. They had baseball bats. His Mum.P, gave him a one way ticket to Adelaide and he took off. Shortly after he rang and begged Yvette to join him there. A fresh start.
Simons Mum paid for bus tickets for Yvette and the boys and she also took off. With some money to start over. She arrived with the kids at a motel and things were alright for two days and then Simon disappeared. Just disappeared. Yvette said he had been testing car door handles. And when she rang Debbie and I she said that she had a feeing in her gut he was locked up.
She also said he would be using a false name, Chris Maxwell. So Debbie and I sat down with a phone book and rang every police station in Adelaide. And on the last one, the 18th we hit pay dirt. Yes, they had a Chris Maxwell there. Deb had told them what was going on and the copper walked into Simons cell and said,
"Hallo, Simon"
Yvette returned home to me with the kids and we started sorting out her and the boys. It was a tough ask as Yvette was a mess. The boys remained fine and they were our first concern. It was still school holidays and I had to work. There wasn't a day I didn't come home when there wasn't something broken or messed up. Jai decided to put a banana in the video, Brock stuck a knife in a power socket and booted himself across the other side of the room.
It was fun and games for a while and we decided to push to get Yvette housed by the Ministry Of Housing. We had all the processes set in place and then Simon rang. (Had I not told her to not give him the number ? ). He had served some time and was now with an ex prisoner and his wife at a country town in South Australia.
The man Simon was staying with and his wife came on the phone and said Yvette and the boys should come over. They were prepared to help him and her and the kids. So with much misgivings I let her go. We continued to work on getting her a house and we were frantic about it. We, being Deb, Alena, Mara, and I and we worked on it and worked on it.
Yvette rang a few times and things were OK for a while, a short while. Unbeknownst to us she had moved out to a Caravan park on the edge of town. Brock had asthma bad and the little kids lips were turning blue with the cold she said later. She had to light the gas rings to keep them warm.
One night Kyle was so sick with flu and he begged her to call the police on his Dad. Yvette had bought a car for $500. Simon had taken it and Yvette had no idea where it or he was. But she figured he had to be in the town somewhere. She told Kyle to pack up everything and take care of the kids. She called the Police and they found the car and took the rotor button out so Simon couldn't drive it and handed it to Yvette.
She walked along the dark road in the early hours of the morning, foggy and cold and raining, black as black, said, later. She was crying and asked Lauren her sister who had died at 12, for help. In fact she changed it to begging and just asked her for help to get the boys home She wasn't concerned for herself but just begged Lauren to get the boys home.
A car appeared beside her. An older man delivering papers,
"Want some help", he asked.
Yvette is a prickly person and doesn't trust easily but she hopped in and the man asked her if she was ok. She blurted out the whole story and he took her around all the streets till they spotted the car. Yvette had dubbed it the Green Pickle.
She hopped out and this car she had discovered would start with a pair of scissors jammed in the ignition. Her saviour stayed with her. But first she had to put the rotor button back in. She did this amazing feat in the dark shaking with cold, got the car started and took off to fetch the boys, feeling like Simon was right behind her.
They frantically packed the car and Yvette took off to Melbourne, feeling like The Hound Of The Baskervilles were on her heels. She knew how angry Simon would be when he found the car gone. She rang me half way,
"I can't stop the car, I have to keep it running, what do I do when I have to fill up with petrol?'
She was terrifed. I said to keep it running while she filled up and to just drive, stay awake and just drive. I offered up prayers of my own at that stage.
She drove and drove and the car conked out right around the corner from my place. Never to go again. The RACV man said it was a miracle it had made it, the rotor button thingy was put on upside down. But Yvette and the boys were back and Yvette was in a bad way. We packed two of the boys off to St Gerards Primary School ASAP and the two little ones I got put in Family Day Care.
Yvette wasn't happy about the boys being in Family Day Care,
"No bloody Indain Bitch is looking after my F*****g kids", she said.
"I can look after my own f******** Kids"
But I gently persuaded her to at least meet Raylene, the day care lady and she loved her and vice versa and to this day Yvette still takes the kids there to see her. Jai, was 2 and now 14. All the boys love her and she was so good to Yvette and I. The biggest thing she did was have them overnight every Friday night, giving us a huge break from them. They were full on, typical boys, bouncing, jumping, yelling, hitting and teasing wach other.
We sent them out to play once at the local park. Zach and Kyle and Kyle came home and was upset and when I asked him what was wrong he said that the kids at the park said he wore funny clothes. Poor clothes. From that day to this Kyle is always immaculate, hair always straightened, and always new clothes. That careless remark had stung him badly. Even at 10.
Yvette slept for 3 weeks and we just let her. I gave her my room which was cool and dark and she slept the clock around. Sometimes I stood at the door and paryed she was still breathing.Then one day around Easter she came out of the room with a tooth in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. She grinned at me. Her mouth full of blood.
"It was hurting, so I took it out"
She was also gouging at her face and picking at her eyes. When I saw the tooth, that was it.
I called the CAT team and they were there within minutes and came everyday for a month. She was sedated and put on meds to help her and she was counselled and allowed to talk and talk. The kids were fine. Kyle at 10 went on the bus every day taking Zach 5, with him. I would drop off the little boys 3 and 2 to Raylene, our beautiful Day Care lady, who would open the front door for me in the dark. And I would go off to work, work all day and come home with the boys and a sleeping sedated Yvette.
Once she was stabilised I decided to somehow work on her self esteem. She hated her face and so did the boys. Kyle said he wanted his pretty Mum back, and at that Yvette cried, and raked her fingernails down her face, making it bleed. so I gave her the car, my car, Every day she would drop me off at Cheltenham from Noble Park and pick me up again at night. She got a referral o a skin specalist and he put her on Roaccutane, a severe drug that works on acne really well.
Sheets of skin would peel from her hands and feet and she had to have dry skin ointment and lip balm and sign a 12 month contract that she would npt fall pregnant, but she didn't care. Her skin was starting to clear on her face, the big bumps and open sores healing and disappearing. The drug that they put her on for her mania caused her to get "Witches Milk" and she had to go off it. But she was recovering and fast.
We never heard from Simon, but we heard through the grapevine he had gone on the run, interstate somewhere, maybe Sydney. We had a house for her in 3 months which was astonishingly lucky as the waiting lists were years long. Mara pushed exceptionally hard and had a friend at the Salvation Army, John, who was unbelievable. he wrote letters on our behalf to the Ministry as did Dr Roger Johnson our family Doctor.
The day she was housed was fantastic, and the odd thing was it was a house that Mandy, Simon's sister had once lived in. It was house with an enormous backyard and a park opposite. My ex husband had to build a temporary fence out the front to stop Jai escaping and running on the road. the boys were settled and happy and Yvette began to run her own show for once.
She picked out a runt from a litter of pups, German Sheperds, that my ex husband had, Bonnie, and she became Yvette's everything, her protector, amusement, her "Girl". Bonnie soon grew and had a particular habit of climbing a tree at the park and sitting aloft in the branches like a cat. We heard no more from Simon only rumours. He was here he was there, somehow we always knew where he was.
The little house was cute and great for Yvette's and the boys. The boys made friends in the neighbourhood and Brock and Jai began school at Dandy West which was a fantastic school and within walking distance. Kyle and Zach continued at St Gerards and did really well. Then Simon came back. Yvette fell pregnant again and by the time the baby was born 5 weeks prem he was back on the "gear", heroin.
He had taken off for Perth to try and get clean and Yvette and the kids soon followed.Once again there was not going to be a "Fresh Start", like Adelaide, the whole dreary scene was back to the same. Simon on drugs and Yvette pissed off and wanting to go home.
One hot day at the motel they were staying at, Yvette had to plunge into the pool , she was on crutches from a badly sprained ankle. People were all around and no one was helping. So Yvette put her crutches down and plunged in to the pool, carefully holding her pregnant belly and rescued Jai. Who was going doen for the 3rd time and was blue in the face. He grabbed on to her and said one word,
"Mum"
Yvette was 7 and a half months pregnant. Within teo hours of her plunge into the pool her waters started to leak, not rupture but leak. Yvette knew what wa happening and grabbed Siomon, shook him awake and said,
Get me home", teeth gritted.
"I am not having this baby here I am having this baby in Melbourne"
"GET ME HOME< NOW !"
And to Simons credit he moved heaven and earth to get her home. Hired a ute loaded all their stuff and took off for the aiport. It was roaring hot but Yvette put on a coat to hide her pregnant belly and boarded the plane with Simon and the boys. She tried not to look like she was in labour. Pains were intermittent and not sharp.
I happened to call past their house the day they arrived home and they were stnding in the front yard. Alena had rung Yvette then rung the Hospital and Yvette was to go and now. The hospital said the plunge in the pool at the motel had probably allowed bacteria to enter the uterus and ruptured the hind waters. So they hooked her up to a drip and started pumping hormones into her to really start labour. Baby was 5 weeks early and in distress.
The day Kyan was born Alena had already had Simon thrown out of the Hospital and the whole place got to hear why. Alena roared at Simon. He was off his dial and weaving all over the place and he took Yvette's eftpos card and car and disappeared before the birth. Yvette insisted we ring the School and get Kyle to walk to the hospital. Which he did and he was just in time to see Kyan his baby brother born.
It was a real moment for Kyle, as the baby's head was crowning I covered Yvette's nether regions in modesty and he was able to see the head appear. The head just resting there outside Yvette's body for 30 secinds and then the whole body came slithering out in a rush. Kyle cried a little, seeking refuge at the window and looking out. We all cried as Kyan was so tiny, no bigger than a loaf of bread. 4 and a half pounds.But alive and well.
Yvette was madder than a cut snake that Simon had her card and car and we were able to cancel one and get the other back with a few threats to Simon. I went back to Yvette's house and found him there trying to get the car started and I ripped out the battery and he took off on foot. He didn't bother to go see Yvette he went to score at Springvale.
Kyan had complications within 2 days of birth. He started presenting bile and they did a barium meal and there seemed to be a blockage in his bowel. So he was tranported to Monash from Dandenong by ambulance and Yvette and I foillowed. Once again she was staying with me. Kyan had to have an operation, scheduled for Midnight. he was so little. And 2 days old.
Yvette and I went before midnight to see him before his operation. The doctors explained they would be opening him up and having a look see. Yvette and I were so scared we couldn't even cry as he was wheeled in his humidicrib to the lift. We jusr stood silent. I said,
"he's in the hands of God now and Lauren"
and we murmured a little prayer. We were both beyond exhausted. I wondered what size instruments they used on baby whose head you could cup in your hand.We went back to the boys and my house and at 6 am were back at the Hospital. I never forget that morning.
The sun was just beginning to rise outside as we walked into the intensive care part of the Neo Natal unit at Monash. It almost seemed like there was a haze in the room and there he was, lit up in the distance in a giant crib with a halo of haze over it. He was alive and they had found nothing. Whatever had been causing the blockage had gone and he was fine.
"You mean they cut my son open for nothing" Yvette said.
But we could stroke him and touch him through the openings in the crib. Who cared if he had a scar, he was alive and I wanted to grab him and run. Simon was allowed a visit in. He was OK, not too bad. He tried to persuade Yvette to come back to her house and she said no. She wanted him out.
He took off and we didn't hear from him for a while. Yvette would not let him near the house at first but relented a little when he offered to take care of the baby while she was working. Debbie had managed to get Yvette and Mara some casual work at Castle Hampers. I thought it would be good for her, so I managed to get another day care lady who could mind a baby as Raylene was booked out. I would go and fetch the baby at 5.30 am while Yvette and Mara readied themselves for work. Then drop him off to Betty, a lovely Timorese lady.
Then I would take the older boys to school from my place and then go to work. Work all day and then turn around and do the same repeat process. Mara was made a Team Leader at Castle and Yvette was bumped up to Quality Control and they made good money and worked like dogs. As it was leading up to Christmas they would work overtime and weekends as well.
Simon kept reappearing and offering to mind the baby. Yvette trusted him , I didn't. I followed him one day and saw he was in Springvale with the baby in a pusher. One day the baby came back slightly sunburned and a person had thrown a can of drink at Simon and hit the baby. That was it, he was gone and I took over again.
We tried to do normal things with the boys and one Sunday took them to Caribbean Gardens. On our return happy and laughing we saw Simon coming down the street. He was wearing a shiny fifty cents tee shirt and Wung Tu trackies, not a good look and had shaved his head. he looked like Clarence Bickle from the end scenr of "Taxi Driver", a threatening figure but Yvette hopped out of the car and said she would handle it.
I took Brock and Jai with me, leaving Yvette with the baby, Kyan, Zach and Kyle. Simon I found out later went berserk, smashing every window in the house and punching Kyle. who was 11 then when he tried to protect his Mother. Zach ran to the neighbours next door and the lady called the Police. She locked Zach and her son in the house and ran to Yvette's. Yvette was in the front yard with the baby and the lady with a nod from Yvette grabbed the baby and fled.
"I take baby", she said to Simon as he came out to the front Yard and she ran and locked herself in her house.
Simon took off again and the Police couldn't find him. Yvette took out an order on him with the help of a great Police woman. Marie. Marie walked into the city watch house a few days later recognised Simon and had him arrested for assualt on Kyle. Busted big time. He was locked away and a good stint and we finally could get on with our lives.
A few weeks earlier Alena and I had been to the Ministry with Yvette and baby in tow and begged that she be moved to a bigger house and somewhere where Simon could not find her. They laughed at us. And Alena said,
" If anything happens to my Sister and Baby it will be your fault."
And of course it did. And suddenly the Ministry had a new house for Yvette.
In Cranbourne, a 4 bedroom house with 2 toilets and a great big backyard, where she still lives now 7 years later. Mara and I had to work and then move her with a friends help. Luckily the friend had a trailer ! Yvette and the boys had gone down with gastro. Mara and I worked like demons to get her moved and then gave a huge sigh of relief once they were all settled.
Mara was still at Castle finishing off after Christmas. Yvette spread out her little tribe in the new house. Yvette and I talked about sharing a property about then but I was unwilling to be under the same roof as you simply can not have two women sharing a kitchen. We planted trees at the side of the house for privacy, little plants they were then and now they have reached twelve feet at least and we have to trim them down.
And eventually I did decide to come here and live as I found out about a scheme through the Ministry that allowed me a unit in the back yard. My ex who I never hear from unless it's something nasty dubbed it to my Grandson,"her shed" he also refers to me always to the girls as "your Mother,", never my name.
Well Bobby Baby it's some "Shed". I brought his Mum here and she was gobsmacked. And hugged me in delight for me.
Its a 8 metre x 5 metre dwelling. Its huge for one person, with kitched, all new, carpet all new, bedroom with a huge ensuite and lounge room. I had looked it up on the website through the Ministry of Housing. It has steps leading up to it with a tiny porch, then an entry hall leading in to the lounge room. All the fittings are top spec. My friend Sylvia had one put in her back garden for her son who had been injured in a Motor bike accident. She paid the same builder as I had and had her fella at the time do a lot of work himself.
And she had paid $30,000 without white goods and her man doing the bulk of the work. And mine was better. Hers was just one room. She was sorely peed off as she had worked her fingers to the bone to get it and I (as far as she was concerned ) had sat on my ass and recieved a better one. It was true that mine was better but I certainly hadn't sat on my ass to get it.
But thats Sylvia, she is Slovenian, always complaining about something. It was ironic that her son had a terribel motor bike accident a few days later. And instead of renting out the unit to a private person she used it instead for her son. He is unable to work for the rest of his life and she said Vic Roads paid him $800 a weel to sit on his own arse.
He quite freely admits he had been on a 3 day "bender", speed the drug and speed and wet road the culprit that sent him spiralling out of control, shattering his ankle to bits and having to be airlifted to the Alfred within minutes of the accident. Wonder what that bill was ??? Anyway Sylvia and I always fight like that. Syl works for Australia and I swan around like Madam Kafoops having a ball.
She's 9 years older than me and all my life has been saying to me,
"Wait till you are my age" Your arms be dead, you will ache in every joint, balh blah blah. I tune out as I adore her but she loves a whinge.
Normally the units are $70,000 and are moveable to anywhere in Victoria if you have the land. And you don't have to worry about building out roof space as it's classed as transportable. Even though they would have to pull it down and re erect it.
It's mine for life and when I die it goes back to the Ministry for some other deserving soul to have. I love it. I decorate it how I want, full of colour and romance. My bedroom has a brass bed and I cover it in pretty pillows and throws and it is my haven. There are doors everywhere so you can close off parts for warmth or cooling.
Outside as I write Bonnie sleeps in her garden bed right under my window We made it for her when she died. Every day without fail I say Good Morning Darling and Good night to her. She rests now after a good life of 12 years. Years full of running with her boys, chasing balls and being adored by Yvette.
Zach and I took her to her old park when we knew she was dying. We had just come from the vet and she had kindly said it was just a matter of time. But as soon as we neared the park she was whining to be let out. And with our assistance she climbed the tree once more and sat up in the branches and surveyed her domain.
She was so very happy that day and Yvette took her too one last time, too. And then she died a while later, peacefully and in her sleep just as the boys insisted she do. Yvette and I were ready at any stage to call in a vet if she so much as whimpered but she didn't. Brave to the last. At the same time Mandy, Simons sister died aged 39 and we wept for her and we wept for Bonnie. And we stuck together and just let the world wash over us for a while.
At last we were living together in the one spot, the boys welfare our joint concern, Simon is incarcerated again and I don't think he will ever be a non drug addict. He just can't seem to cope with the outside world. When he came back out last time after an 8 month stint, Kyle was very excited. He was up early his girlfriend Mladenka, said, all happy and excited to be going out to pick up his Dad.
Simon had promised all sorts of things to his boys while he was in the "Big House", he was getting another house and taking some of the boys with him and they would get new computers and he would go to work for once. Mladenka said Kyle came back home that night and lay face down on the bed.
"Twelve hours that's all it took", he said to Maladenka.
Twelve hours and he was back on Ice or Shard as they call it. Methamphetamine, 10 times the strength of speed and 10 times the damage. He hadn't even attempted to see the other boys who he had promised so much. But he's a drug addict and a bad one, so Yvette and I had always been realistic about him coming out. We thought his losing his much loved sister, Mandy might have slowed him down. He had been allowed to go to her Funeral in handcuffs, which he thought was just funny.
He looked then like Robert Downey Junior, darkly bearded and short hair. He didn't cry then and said he wasn't going to cry in jail either, he would put his grief on hold until he was free again. The boys, his 5 boys were delighted to see him and see him so well. He was a little weightier than he had been before he went in and looked healthy.
After he was out Yvette saw him one last time. The Father of her sons, who she had loved and tried to help since she had just turned 15 and he 13. Rebels together. She was shocked and upset when she saw him as he looked so thin he was almost transparent. The orbital bone around his eyes showing under neath his skin. He looked sicker than she had ever seen him and she came home and nrealy vomited with fear, sure he would end up dead.
A few days later we heard through the ever trusty grapevine that he was locked up and we both brethed a big sigh of relief. At least he was still alive. Simon seems to have an uncanny knack of being locked up when he is really bad. Yvette says he gets bored after a while, no friends, no family, used all the drugs he can. No one to hang with except people just like him.
Yvette went to his house after she heard he was locked up. The house was about to be boarded up by the Police his Mum had said. A house she bought for him. Yvette said the house was beyond comprehension. One room had a mountain, literally a mountain of washing in it. Rolled up in carpet that had been soaked. There was tape on the floor and writing and a huge concrete hole in the hall. Everything was a mess, the BBQ in the Family room, even the heater had been skewed off the wall.
Yvette and Zach left the house of horrors and drove home. At least he was alive, at least he was safe for the time being. Yvette's concern for the boys if something had happened to him. Not being brave enough to go through another senseless death. We haven't heard from him, but the boys may get some letters full of empty promises. We await developments..........
Love Janette
