A New Beginning

This book is about the story of my childhood and what I had to endure growing up in a foreign country. It is about all the trials and tribulations a small child had to suffer and never once complained about. It contains a great deal of graphic details of things that were done to me and of the thoughts and emotions I had to go through. It contains my life story of when we reached the shores of Australia to the time I was 21 and was married. It will bring you to tears at times but I must tell you it left an indelible image in my psyche which I had to work through for years. It is all true to the best of my abilities as I remember these things happening to me. I have changed names and left last names out or just used initials as I didn’t want to offend anyone who is still alive today. Please read it with and open mind and heart and allow me to show you what a child of society should never endure while they are innocent and growing up. Goulburn Post Newspaper Article.. A LOT of people are told they should write the story of their life, but Goulburn woman Andrea Reid has taken this advice seriously and done it. The book is called A New Beginning and it is about her experiences growing up in the Blue Mountains in the 1960s as the child of Dutch migrants. Mrs. Reid’s family came to Australia in 1959, answering the Australian Government’s call for skilled migrants. “Lots of them went to the Snowy Mountains Scheme but my father preferred the Blue Mountains and got a on the railways as an electrical engineer,” she said. The book cover her life from ages 3 to 21 and contains many detailed references to a time passed in Australia’s (for better and worse), including many snippets of life and times in the Blue Mountains in that era. But her childhood was a journey of pain and suffering. Mrs. Reid said she suffered abuse within her own family and bullying at school because she was different. “It seems like we were the only migrants at Lawson Public School,” she said. “I was bullied and it was totally ignored back then and often the teachers would single you out and blame you for starting things as well.” She said times were extremely tough at home as both of her parents became alcoholics and her mother suffered from undiagnosed schizophrenia for many years. As a child herself she was left to raise her brother and sister due to her parent’s neglect. “I remember starving for most of my childhood,” she said. “There was never enough food and I used to love going to friend’s houses because I would often get fed there.” She left home as soon as she could to escape the abuse, and trained to be a nurse, but was raped and then fired from work. So began her life as a single mother until she met her husband. Mrs Reid’s predominant message throughout the book is that children should not have to endure suffering like she did as a child. “Children are sensitive beings. We have a responsibility to them. We are ushers of life,” Mrs Reid said. “My life was one of twists and turns that no child should ever have experienced.” She said writing the book was cathartic and necessary. “This book cleaned a lot of mental anguish from my childhood,” she said. “Writing the book gave me a purpose when my children left home and allowed me to clear all that stuff out.” Mrs Reid was a nurse for 25 years, until a back injury prevented her from working. She originally came to Goulburn in 1986. She plans to write another book and travel to Holland and visit her relatives at some point.