'We were children caught up in a welfare system that was meant to protect us, but ultimately served only to damage us. Yes, it was a different time, but many of the things that happened to us wouldn't be acceptable in any era. My name is Beverly Wardle-Jackson, and this is my story.'
In the Hands of Strangers is the heart-wrenching story of Beverly Wardle-Jackson's stolen childhood. Separated from her brothers and sisters and taken into Child Welfare care at the age of 12, Beverly spends five harrowing years as a New Zealand state ward - being beaten, locked up, and eventually admitted to Porirua Hospital in Wellington for psychiatric treatment. Her trust is betrayed time and again, while she dreams of the day she will finally be reunited with her siblings. But will that day ever come?
Review by Eliza in the Eldernet office.
'We were children caught up in a welfare system that was meant to protect us, but ultimately served only to damage us. Yes, it was a different time, but many of the things that happened to us wouldn't be acceptable in any era. My name is Beverly Wardle-Jackson, and this is my story.'
In the Hands of Strangers is the heart-wrenching story of Beverly Wardle-Jackson's stolen childhood. Separated from her brothers and sisters and taken into Child Welfare care at the age of 12, Beverly spends five harrowing years as a New Zealand state ward - being beaten, locked up, and eventually admitted to Porirua Hospital in Wellington for psychiatric treatment. Her trust is betrayed time and again, while she dreams of the day she will finally be reunited with her siblings. But will that day ever come?
Review by Eliza in the Eldernet office.
Put simply, I read this book cover to cover in one day. I couldn't put it down. It is at times a difficult read as you delve into the author's graphic and detailed account of her own harrowing childhood as a ward of the state. This is a moving story which follows a young life without certainty or stability from infancy to adulthood. A life where the best intentions often have the most dire outcomes for a young girl who has no one to protect, love or nurture her. She comes from a broken home into the Child Welfare system of the sixties and seventies, where no one seems to care what happens to a vulnerable child and everyone wants her to behave herself without complaint, love or support. That the author managed to find happiness in later life is a true blessing and a testament to her need to survive, thrive and grow. Well worth the read as you share her experiences and emotions, and hope beyond hope that children in the same situation today are better supported by a system that seems to put the needs of the child last. Certainly her story is reason enough for things to change.
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