Margaret Adams
I got married here in this townhouse…

I moved to Minto in 1996. It was very quiet and I didn’t know very many people here. We came from Cabramatta.

I got married here in this townhouse. When the photographer was photographing us he told us to walk down the stairs together, the bride and the father side-by-side. But we couldn’t fit together down the stairs, so I went down the stairs first and then [my father] went down by himself after me.

The kindest thing my neighbour has done for me was to mind my place while I was away on holidays for seven weeks. She helped me when my 10-monthsold child just went blue and purple and I thought, “Oh my god!” and yelled out. Because I didn’t know anyone and I had only got to know Tina, I went “Help, Help!” and she came out and asked, “What’s wrong, Margaret?” I said “Oh, my baby’s stopped breathing and I don’t know what’s wrong”. I didn’t know the area so she took me to Liverpool Hospital. Belinda had to stay in hospital for three days. They found she was an asthmatic. My neighbour Tina has done so much for us.

The mothers got together in Tina’s house: Tina, Tracey, myself, and Maria. We all got together and did a bit of craft. Tracey is the artist, she used to paint. We used to get out there and drink cups of tea and she used to perm our hair. It kept us occupied during the day when there was nothing to do because we didn’t know anything about the community around here. It was just us just getting together and doing our own thing.

They’ve introduced the soup kitchen and the Saturday breakfast especially with all the single mothers up here. You always think, “How do they cope?” You know the pension couldn’t go that far up here. You know, we used to BE the shops. People used to come to our door and ask for eggs and tomatoes and potatoes, and bread and butter and everything. And you used to just give it to them. You didn’t question it because you knew it was the surroundings you were living in. It was coming from your heart. You just give it and you never ask for it back.