Tag: challenge

The Missing Pieces of Us

Once again Fleur McDonald has selected an emotionally challenging issue as the basis for her latest work, that of adoption and the far reaching effect of finding a birth mother when illness strikes.

Skye Ramsey comes from a loving family, the younger of two siblings, but hits a downhill emotional trajectory when she turns fourteen. She is trying to discover her self-worth, not really understanding why there are so many years between her and her brother. Perhaps her parents didn’t really want her; perhaps her mother doesn’t love her.

Her friends are not all that helpful and when she accepts a dare set by a friend she discovers what this ‘friendship’ is all about. When Skye is caught shoplifting, Tamara, a woman who has her own demons to conquer, offers Skye a part time position in her shop and also a safe haven from the ‘destructive friendships’ she has inadvertently formed.

Skye’s mother Lauren is facing challenges of her own, both in her workplace and on a personal level, and when she has a melanoma checked out and discovers it is malignant, requiring urgent surgery, the entire family is thrown into emotional upheaval.

Lauren has always understood she was adopted. Over the years she has made several half-hearted attempts to find her birth mother, partly out of curiosity and also out of the desire to see if the melanoma’s she has been aware of for several years could possibly be genetic.

Tamara (Tara) Thompson, the child of a father on a destructive, controlling rage, was thrown out of her home at a young age having to learn to survive on the streets. She has spent many, many years learning how to trust again, sometime not very successfully. Her mother, whom she has not seen since that fateful evening arrives at her shop, telling her that her father, informing her when the funeral will be held.

This takes her back to an emotional place she thought she had left behind, and in the healing process that begins after the funeral, she is told by her mother she has also been adopted.

How these three very diverse women come together, despite trying to deal with their own emotional issues, makes a telling and loving story of friendship, crisis, family and the eternal bond that lies between mothers and their children, regardless of the circumstance.

Beautifully written, Fleur McDonald has shown a depth of understanding about a very topical issue bringing a very emotional component of modern history, often kept locked away within families, into the light.

April 20, 2017
One Foot Beyond The Podium

Following on from his first book One Foot On The Podium where Don has finally reached a long held dream, a goal, to compete at the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000 winning a Bronze medal for Pentathlon. His journey was long, hard, challenging and emotional, but to finally achieve what he set out to do with his family watching, cheering him on was the ultimate sensation; it was the absolute moment when everything he and his team had worked for finally came together.

But what comes next for an élite athlete once the fanfare dies down, the rest and relaxation is over and real life, once again, is there to be resumed: as he discovered to his immense horror, a strong relationship with Post Games Blues came next. All of a sudden the urge to compete was not the same, the workload of intense training had slowed to a normal everyday pace, and life was one well provisioned function after another. Drifting along was the option of the moment followed by serious weight gain.

A time trial at the Sandringham Athletics Track saw him in despair as he realised he had lost his competitive edge, his fitness and that in this state, competition, serious competition, was not an option. On the brink of debilitating despair his friend, mentor and Coach Roy Boyd stopped off for a chat.

The results of that chat saw him begin to believe that he could, if he worked hard, rose to the challenge and set goals, see him seriously compete at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. After all there was three and a half years left to get to peak condition.

And so begins the next years in the Elgin family, as not only did he have to work hard as an élite athlete he also had to support his young and growing family, but how best to do this was the next challenge to be undertaken.

A series of events saw him continuing on the speaker’s circuit along with invitations to present as a motivational speaker to sporting groups, clubs and businesses. Some paid well, some came with additional benefits but were still not consistent enough to leave his employment with Australia Post; a company that had not only sponsored him as an athlete but also provided him with work for many years.

A meeting with a young amputee who was determined to succeed at sport was the first step on the journey to mentoring other athletes, moving into becoming team manager for disabled elite athletes travelling away overseas to the Commonwealth Games in London and beginning to realise that there was a new pathway opening up; one where he could use his skills, his experience, his natural ability to enjoy life, and his love of motivational speaking, which as the years have moved along, has bought him much joy, happiness, many new challenges and fun.

His last challenge, walking the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea was a real learning curve in more ways that he expected, proving to be one off the greatest challenges, both emotionally and physically, that he had ever faced.

Inspiring, entertaining, absolutely totally enjoyable, by the end of this chapter in Don Elgin’s life we renewed our friendship with the Elgin family, laughed, cried and empathised with Don as he has once again hurtled towards and through life’s challenges, coming out at the other end feeling so much better for the experience.

October 3, 2016
Raising the Perfectly Imperfect Child – Facing the challenges with strength, courage and hope

Looking at the photo on the front cover of this book is enough to break your heart. For there is the face of a blond haired boy who could have been my son or yours, but this boy has no arms and no legs. He is lying on a skate board and looks happy and at ease. This is the story of Nick’s life so far, as written by his father. It is full of faith and belief, and trust in God, although for a while, Boris and Dushka, his parents, felt they had been punished by God.

The foreword in this book has been written by Nick. He tells the story that at age nineteen he told his parents he was going to South Africa on a speaking tour, and going to donate the money to the poor. They argued and tried to dissuade him from going, but Nick was determined, and succeeded in his quest. It would be difficult to raise a normal headstrong boy, but Nick was so much more than his body suggested.

The first few chapters deal with the birth of Nick. He was a first child, greatly loved and wanted. For parents of children born with a disability, the honesty of the parents in the first weeks of Nick’s life would be helpful. Even though their faith was tremendous, they entertained the thought of placing Nick in a home for the rest of his life. The overwhelming issues of how to deal with a child with no limbs were too many to contemplate. However, once the decision was made to keep their son, each problem was dealt with in a practical manner. Comments were made about his mother not helping him to deal with things, but she understood that he needed to work out his own methods of movement and control.

There is much advice given in this book. For example, a disadvantaged child may become a bit demanding and bossy, so other siblings need to be given priority time. This will help to maintain a good relationship between the children as they are growing up. Discipline needs to be fair and just with all the children and not adjusted for the disabled child. Following most chapters is a set of bullet point ideas stemming from that chapter; the chapter on “Give Yourself Permission to Grieve and Time to Recover” has nine points to consider, such as “Understand that those close to you are mourning too”.

The positive note in this story is the deep love and commitment that has Nick found, together with his wife Kanae. The joy that Nick and his mother and father felt when Kanae gave birth to their first child, a beautiful healthy boy was amazing.

Nick has made a name for himself as a speaker and great advocate of God’s love around the world. This is certainly an honest, uplifting story, to be brought to the attention of caring people everywhere.

May 18, 2016
Indigo Storm

The subject matter is challenging and beautifully handled by Fleur McDonald, as she wraps the story of a courageous young woman, Ashleigh, about the topical issues of domestic violence.

Ashleigh has had enough of being abused and manipulated by her controlling and demanding husband. He is ‘king-pin’ in the small rural town of Jindabyne, in the mountains of Victoria.

Dominic’s family have been presence in the town for many years but he has managed to become a man who controls not just his wife, but the local Doctor and Police officer, as well as many of the town’s male citizens. He has a reputation to maintain and uses a subtle, threatening demeanour to maintain control.

Ashleigh finds she is drawn to the town of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges through an article she has read in Australian Outback. She finds this somewhat confusing as she is an orphan, with no understanding of who her parents were, or where she was born. So why would this small town on the edge of the dessert hold such an attraction for her?

Dominic finally goes one step too far so she puts her carefully prepared plan into place, setting off and driving by night, changing her appearance, her route, and her name to Eliza, until she reaches Blinman, where she finds so much more than she ever believed possible.

She is befriended by Sue, the store owner, finds a job at the National Park as teacher to the Park Rangers little girls, Heidi and Tilly. She also meets Jacob, one of the local land owners and Uncle to the little girls she is teaching.

An excursion with the girls takes her to a ruined homestead which sets off an unexpected train of events; she meets Mary and John, who somehow know more about her life than they are telling and slowly, she begins to unravel the story of her past, her story.

Eliza finally begins to believe that she can start again and have a life that is both happy and productive, surrounded by friends, when Dominic discovers where she is and comes to find her!

The fast paced ending to the story is not expected as there are several stories running through each other, they create an ending as explosive as it is healing.

Fleur McDonald has come of age with her latest romance and the manner in which she deals with the topical subjects of domestic violence and animal trafficking.

April 28, 2016