Summer 2020

Don’t be afraid of autism

When Jack Rogerson turned two his parents threw him a birthday party. They invited their family and friends around and transformed their brick-paved courtyard into a toddler-centred playhouse with toys and a plastic slide and a Thomas the Tank Engine that was big enough to ride.

Lonely mum looking for friends

RU OK Day will be held tomorrow. This is one mother’s personal experience of loneliness and how she fought to overcome it.

My iPhone buzzed. I looked down at the text message on the glowing blue screen. The words took a moment to sink in. It was like being back in primary school and discovering you hadn’t been invited to your friend’s sleepover, only worse.

Viewpoint

News stories in the final weeks centred on the thousands of tourists who were keen to scale the monolith’s mighty heights before the ban took effect. And many did line up in their thousands for one last chance to climb Uluru. Most Australians were reportedly ‘comfortable’ with the decision to prohibit climbing but there were …

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My Christmas blessing

1 December 2019 On Christmas Eve in 1965 my first child was born. Seventeen hours prior and showing early signs of labour, I was admitted to St Margaret’s Hospital, Darlinghurst in Sydney. After my admission, labour had progressed very slowly: the baby seemed to have settled down and nothing much was happening. The nurses were …

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Holiday blues

1 December 2019 Their experience is called a “blue” Christmas, something described by the Urban Dictionary as such: “It means to have a sad Christmas perhaps because you are away from family or alone, or even filled with thoughts of a happier time that brings tears to your eye. Blue is a symbolic color for …

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