Where I Grew Up
I grew up in Wyoming, which is one of the suburbs of Gosford on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Citrus Orchards
My father owned citrus fruit orchards, mainly oranges and an orchard or two of lemons. I can remember as a young girl I sometimes had to drive the tractor while the men did the spraying. I’ve often wondered if this very act was behind my inability to carry a child to full-term. It was nothing to be covered in spray.
During the first 19 years of my life I had no idea that oranges tasted anything but wonderful, straight off the trees. It was a total shock to me when I boarded a ship headed for New Zealand at the age of 19 and they offered me a drink called Raro. I was told it’s just orange juice. I had never tasted anything so far removed from orange juice in all my life!
Then upon arriving in New Zealand I beheld the oranges imported from the USA with permanent dints in the side of them. As you can see, I had no idea how the other half lived!!!
I had a J.O.B. before I was ready…
My father believed very much in the fact that you should get out there and work… he wasn’t particularly interested in academics.
A time came at the end of the school year that he asked one of his acquaintances if they had a job for me. As it turned out, they did.
I told Dad that I was happy to do it for the school holidays but I wanted to go back to school the next year.
He was really unhappy with me and told me that as he had secured the job for me, I should be grateful and keep it.
It really hurt me at the time, but felt there was nothing I could do. I now know I should have stood my ground, but back then it gave me the feeling they didn’t believe in my ability.
My dream of nursing dashed to pieces
The place I worked was virtually all men. There were only 7 of us girls in a men’s world. It became increasingly difficult for me as many of the men were “on to me”… oh I won’t bother to tell you all the details.
Unfortunately I was the manager’s favourite, and this worked to my detriment! You see, I had decided I would become a nurse… I had my heart set on it.
Somehow he found out about it and set to destroying that desire as best he could, just for his own selfish needs. Every chance he got he would tell me how I would never make a nurse… blah, blah, blah.
Unfortunately, I ended up believing him and left that dream on the shelf.
Became a Medical Assessor
I eventually left there and found a job in a place that was 90% women! Haha, the changes we make.
Anyway, while I was there I was chosen to become a Medical Assessor for one of the local Health Insurance Funds. I had to go through the medical training and then had a great job which I enjoyed immensely.
Off to New Zealand…
At the age of 18 years I made a decision that when I turned 19 I would go on a working holiday to New Zealand.
I chose that age chiefly because I was no longer going to go nursing.
I marched into work and spread the word around among the girls, telling them of my decision… and asked… “who wants to come with me?”
About 2 weeks later one of the girls asked me how I felt about her accompanying me, so it was decided… we were going!
For the rest of that year we had a marvellous time, pouring over brochures and saving every last cent we possibly could. I loved that year!
Naturally enough we ran into opposition… “you wont last long”, “you won’t find jobs” etc etc etc. But we just made sure we had enough for our airfares back put aside and nothing was going to stop us.
We booked the first boat leaving Sydney after I turned 19 years. Mum tried to convince me to go just for a little while but I said I wanted to see it in all seasons. As you do, I broke my Mum’s heart.
Between the ages of 19 and 20, Joyce and I had the time of our lives travelling up and down the length of New Zealand, stopping wherever we wanted when a place held a particular appeal, and found ourselves jobs. No problems! This is a whole story in itself.
The world of the Party Plan
I began in the party-plan world in my early 20’s with a company called “Mystic Makeup”.
I did reasonably well with the parties, even winning prizes etc… but in the end what got to me was always having to ask people if they would have a party for me.
I came out at the end of it with a belief that this sort of thing wasn’t really for me.
Personal Secretary to Senior Accountant
For quite some years I worked in a large accountancy firm where I was the Personal Secretary to the Senior Accountant in New Zealand.
I very much enjoyed working there at the time. Later I worked in another accountancy office as well.
Married and eventually a Son
Meanwhile I had married Selwyn, originally from Tasmania, and after trying for a child for many years, we finally adopted the most wonderful little boy called Trent.
Trent had a special need, Spina Bifida, but to me he couldn’t have been more perfect, and I couldn’t have loved him more.
Network Marketing
Along the way I joined Amway, but did nothing… and then finally joined Wheylite Australia. Well, this really did appeal to me… network marketing… here I come! I went into it with heart and soul, and yes, I did pretty well, winning sales awards etc.
I didn’t stop until the company was sold and then seemed to fall into oblivion. This was devastating!
I had all the time in the world for this man and his inventions, so I gave myself to this company and building my business.
Network Marketing had become my “thing” though and I became involved in a few other companies before I finally was introduced to Neways when it was under the management of Tom Mower.
Home Schooling
As Trent grew through his primary school years it finally became obvious to me that I need to do some home-schooling. I knew others who were doing it but never for one moment did I think I would!
Trent was begging me to do it but I stood firmly against it. Without going into the details, a day finally come when I knew that I knew it was what I needed to do.
During this time I worked hard spreading myself between home-schooling and Neways. Yes, it was a bit tough but I had no intention on giving either of them up.
Then on top of this, my mother began needing my attention a lot more… now I had to spread into another direction.
Finally my Mum died, but on the lead up to this I could no longer care for my Neways business. I didn’t leave it, I just stopped working it. Problem was, when I stopped, so did the team. It began to fall away.
My answer lay in the Internet
So I turned to the Internet. I saw this as my answer… I could work it in my own time and still be there for Trent… the perfect solution. I passed through all the usual ups and downs in the learning curve, but finally found Cascading Wealth.
It wasn’t long before I was relating to the manager quite a lot and ended up on the administration.
As was my usual way, I gave myself to it with heart and soul. I worked long, long hours.
Basically, the manager would buy a program and I would develop the site. We worked in partnership together, and I was given much say in the company.
I’m really sorry to say that a time come where I had to leave the company.
Working with Children
I have also had much experience working with children. For most of my adult life I’ve been involved with them one way or another. When I was about 17 I ran a club for kids in our local district. It became so popular that sometimes the kids were hanging in through the windows as the hall we were using was too small for the numbers we had. What a brilliant time that was.
Later I became interested in teaching Sunday School and ran a Children’s Church. This finally overflowed into Scripture in Schools which I taught for 13 years.
I changed the whole face of scripture in our local primary school with my ideas and fun-filled activities that I poured into it.
I’ll never forget when the principal called me into her office and told me, that over all the years she had been a school teacher never once had the children written down that scripture was their favourite subject… but now more than half the class said it was the best subject of the lot! That meant a lot to me. 🙂
Natural Health Interests with the Aim of Staying Healthy
Over the years I had developed a deep interest in health… in particular, natural health. I’m much more interested in learning how to keep ourselves healthy, like what I need to eat or drink to maintain health, rather than I am in the other side of trying to get better using drugs and pharmaceutical medicines. I’ve studied it in depth, working my way through a lot of confusing information.
I have a great love of making my own lotions and potions in my own kitchen. It gives me much satisfaction and joy.
Formal Studies
During the time I lived at Spring Waters in Mt Direction, I undertook studies and became formally certified as a Nutritional Consultant and Dietary Counsellor through the Health Academy in Queensland.
I continued to further my studies doing Naturopathic Nutrition together with Reflexology.
Left the property
It was a sad day for me when we finally left behind us the wonderful property and all my wonderful birds. I did manage to take just three hens with me, but chiefly because I needed to find a new home for them and decided they could stay with us.
