the top of the milk , only to get in trouble and be sent back to the shops to get more , when I got home . I walked that highway and across the railway tracks every day on my own , to get to school .
Back in those days parents could enrol kids to start school at the age of four , but I think I started school just before I turned four , so I was always younger than everybody else .
I remember stealing $ 10 to buy an April Shower doll from the chemist , but I don ’ t remember birthday or Christmas celebrations from that age .
I attended many primary schools in my life . Once the police came looking for me because I went to a friend ’ s house after school instead of going home . They thought my dad abducted me , so home I went in the back of a division van .
My granddad ( mum ’ s dad ) taught me to swim by throwing me into the ocean and making me find my way back to shore . Grandpa Harry was of Jewish Irish heritage and he was strict . He had a younger son ( my uncle ), who lived with us in the townhouse . Uncle Geoff had incurred a brain injury as a result of being in a bike accident in his 20s . He was a trumpet player and he died in his early 40s . He was a gentle soul .
From the time I was about four until I was around eight , I remember my mother driving me back and forth to my father ’ s parents house to visit them . Sometimes I would stay a day , a weekend or a week , and again and each time I would start at a different primary school . I remember visiting my dad once near Luna Park .
I recall one day , screaming and screaming as my mother left me at my grandparent ’ s house . I couldn ’ t understand why I was staying there and she was going home with my sister ( she was four years younger than me ). I can still see myself banging on the old timber door shouting “ why don ’ t you want me ?”, the gold knocker on the door clashing away .
When I was aged eight , my mother reached a turning point
in her life . She had to decide whether to remain a mother to two children and forgo her career for a 9am to 5pm job , or give up one of her children and pursue a career for herself . She chose the latter , and so I went to live with my father ’ s parents while my sister stayed with her .
I remember a few visits to my mum ’ s during that time . She had a boyfriend who had a daughter named Rachel . She was my age and she lived with them . I use to sit on the steps outside while my mum had an afternoon nap .
My grandparents were amazing to take me in and I ’ m forever grateful to them for doing so , because not only did they have to look after me , but they had two sons as well – one of whom was my father . My father spent most of his life in prison , or an institution for mental health . He robbed from his own parents , was married two or three times ( all of which ended eventually ). He was a heavy drinker and a pathological liar and he came in and out of my life too often .
I actually went and lived with him for a short period of time when I was 15 . I ’ d gotten my first full time job at McDonalds , before this I worked at Coles serving hot chips and dim sims . It wasn ’ t a pleasant experience – more domestic violence , police involvement and even a siege . Except for visits to the prison I really don ’ t remember a side of him that wasn ’ t drunk , lying or violent . He died when he was 46 in Adelaide ; he dropped dead on the spot at work . He hadn ’ t long been out of prison ( about 18 months ) and unknowingly had a heart condition . At the time he was living with a lovely lady named Charmaine and her two teenage children . Charmaine had fond memories of him – I ’ m glad somebody did .
He was buried in Adelaide and I haven ’ t been back there since his funeral . It was a small service . I have a picture of his plaque . I forgave him for the challenges he brought into my
FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING : THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MEL TEMPEST 3