Reader's Digest

(avery) #1
14 | July• 2018

One Mother


to Another


Emptyroomsareevenmorekeenly
felt when a phone goes missing

STRESS LEVELS WERE RIDING HIGHin our house during
the last week of January this year. But above all a sadness
enveloped the empty rooms of our farm house west of
Goondiwindi Queensland and I physically ached to
have my daughters in its fold again. But our hand was
forced by the distance of this vast land as four days
earlier we had left our two eldest girls Georgie 13 and
Annabel 11 at a boarding school over 500 kilometres
away. hank goodness we still had our youngest nine-
year-old Lily at home for a couple more years.
ItwasAustraliaDayandwehadspenttheafternoon
celebratingwithfriends.Whenwearrivedhome
themessagebankonmymobilephonewaslashing.
Annabel’sconcernedvoicegreetedus:“HiMumand
Dadyou’llneverguesswhat–I’velostmyphone!”
Afterjustfourdaysatschoolhermainmeansof
communicationbetweenus–avery‘old’phone–had
been lost ‘while doing cartwheels’ at an Australia Day

KINDNESS OF STRANGERS


Emma Montgomery
lives ive hours
south-west of
Brisbane on the
family beef and
grain property.
Originally from
Somerset England
she met her
husbandBillinthe
UKandmadeher
waytothe‘land
of plenty’ for an
adventure.

EMMA MONTGOMERY

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES
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