by Kerry Wade
I lived with my baby brother and mother. My Dad I never met. I heard stories of him at family gatherings and saw an odd picture here or there. But that was it. He left when I was only a couple of months old, they say, and since then I had many other daddies. But none that stayed.
We lived in a unit over a fish and chip shop that was big enough just for us. I would go to sleep at night with the smell of burnt oil in my nostrils and to this day that smell still reminds me of that place.
I can remember my mother always working when I was a kid. She was always cleaning at work and at home. She cleaned motel rooms at different places and as I got older I would sometimes help her on the holidays but most times I was minding Benny my baby brother.
As kids, we never really ate out much, only fish and chips on a special occasion from downstairs. But we ate okay and were always clean and tidy.
I lived with my baby brother and mother. My Dad I never met. I heard stories of him at family gatherings and saw an odd picture here or there. But that was it. He left when I was only a couple of months old, they say, and since then I had many other daddies. But none that stayed.
We lived in a unit over a fish and chip shop that was big enough just for us. I would go to sleep at night with the smell of burnt oil in my nostrils and to this day that smell still reminds me of that place.
I can remember my mother always working when I was a kid. She was always cleaning at work and at home. She cleaned motel rooms at different places and as I got older I would sometimes help her on the holidays but most times I was minding Benny my baby brother.
As kids, we never really ate out much, only fish and chips on a special occasion from downstairs. But we ate okay and were always clean and tidy.
Do you know the stats? In the Hunter region, the number of homeless on census night totalled 1747, an increase of about 12 per cent on the 2011 figure. Read more
