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Writers' Stories

A collection of life stories by writers who have attended Deborah's classes

When I was sixteen by Nicky Won

16/5/2022

 
Nicky Won is a fifth generation New Zealand Chinese. She worked for many years as a corporate lawyer, but realised that there were other stories she wanted to write. She is now working on an account of the life of her Irish/German great-great grandmother who married a Chinese goldminer in Otago in the 1880s.
 
I was sixteen and at Wellington Girls’ College and I had snuck out of school early, with three of my best friends. Wagging like the bad girls. We headed to the Botanical Gardens.
 
The sun was bright and the air was crisp. The rose garden was planted in circles with beds of roses that were dusky pink, sun-coloured yellow and gentle whites. We ran around giddily, stopping at roses to smell, but we were drawn to the fountain in the middle. A formal concrete fountain, in our eyes fitting of a palace garden.
 
Our uniforms were a teal pleated skirt (at appropriate knee length) with a white blouse and scratchy wool v-neck jersey.  Because we were the geeky kids at school we proudly wore roman sandals. We shed our sandals and dipped our feet in the fountain. Our whole bodies followed and we waded and danced around the centre piece, skirts hitched up and tucked in our undies. We became drenched, but we weren’t overly concerned, we were absorbed in the moment. We would phone home later from the red telephone box behind the tea house with our cover story— staying late at a friend’s to study.
 
Seeing my girlfriends in the fountain, I felt a wonderment—how much I loved them. We felt alive with all the beauty before us and all the possibilities of our lives.
 
If I were to draw a line in my life with childhood on one side, my seventeenth year would sit on the other side. It was as though a light had switched on.  
 
When the Springbok tour was on in 1981 we had joined the vigil down at Parliament grounds after school. Friends we met there let us know about the next lot of protests, which were held with the arrival in New Zealand waters of the USS Truxton, a nuclear warship. In our school uniforms, skipping study periods, a handful of us stood in a line outside the railway station on the side facing the main road where the cars had to stop for traffic lights.  Swaying in the southerly wind and holding up placards—honk if you support us.
 
At other times, and in fact a lot of the time after school, we would go to each other’s houses. At Jess’ house we would hang out in her bedroom eating the chocolate peanut slabs we had picked up at the dairy. They were our food of choice, the smokey taste of the peanuts with the smooth rich chocolate. I am sure they were bigger in those days. They could be purchased for a few coins, unencumbered by plastic wrapping and hand plucked from the white cardboard box.
 
Lying on Jess’ unmade bed after clearing away piles of worn clothing onto her floor, we would listen on her Dad’s record player, to David Bowie. And sing along to the chorus line, untunefully in my case, ‘We can be heroes… just for one day’.

Next stop a regular day by Roslind O'Neill

15/5/2022

 
Roslind O’Neill (38) writes to share her journey following diagnosis of a spinal cord tumour.. She writes to fill a gap in the literature wanting to document her experience in order to assist others living with ependymoma cancer. She writes to better understand the personal impact that both the diagnosis and subsequent spinal cord injury has had on her.

I was travelling home from work on the Northern Express Bus feeling tired. My head felt heavy, like a bowling ball. I propped it against the window to relieve the tension in my neck. Being a working mum with a two year old and a four year old was exhausting. The bus ride had become my "me time." But it was also the place where my mind went straight to the same questions that bubbled up and plagued me whenever I had a moment to myself. Would it come back? When would it come back? What if they couldn't operate again? What if it spread? What if they operate again and I end up a quadriplegic? What if I die? What about my kids? 

Sitting silently on the bus playing out the “what ifs” I am left feeling defeated, exhausted and broken. I know I need a break from the questions, from the fear. It occurs to me that I am expending so much energy worrying about the tumour, it is taking the joy from every day. What if I was hit and killed by a bus instead, then I would have wasted all that time worrying about a tumour when I should have been worried about the bus… And so I gave myself permission to not think for one day about tumours, wheelchairs or dying. I would just have a regular day. I could always get back to the “what ifs” the day after.
​

    Your Stories

    Please submit your story via the Contact page and it will receive a gentle edit from Deborah.
    WRITING GUIDELINES
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    Adele Ellis
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    Colin Radford
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    Dianne Speed
    Don Cowan
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    Gabrielle Reekie
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    Graham McGregor
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    Gretel Jack
    Helen Gillespie
    Inge Rudolph
    Isabella Mcdermott
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    Jane Bissell
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    Janet Bovett
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    Jean Rockel
    Jennifer McGarry
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    Jicca Smith
    Jim Barnett
    Jim Cooke
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    Joan Hugo Burley
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    Jo Frew
    John Goodman
    Judy Hardie
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    Julia Blick
    Julie Star
    Juliet Jackson
    Justine Sachs
    Kacie Stetson
    Kate Lewis
    Katherine Kelly
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    Katrina Cole
    Leona Fay
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    Liz Lees
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    Liz Thomas
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    Lorene Verheijden
    Lydia Smith
    Lynley Stone
    Maire Vieth
    Mandy Robinson
    Margaret Farrell
    Margaret Merton
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    Margo Knightbridge
    Marg Slater
    Maria Kazmierow
    Maria Zivkovich
    Marie Cameron
    Marie Coyle
    Marie Lynne Mitchell
    Marijke Batenburg
    Marilyn Eales
    Maris O'Rourke
    Maryan Dawson
    Mary Barker
    Mary Betz
    Mary Bogan
    Mary Borok
    Mary Elsmore-Neilson
    Mary Nicholas
    Mary Weal
    Mattie Wall
    Maureen Sudlow
    Max Adams
    Meg Johnson
    Meret Berger
    Michelanne Forster
    Mike Kilpatrick
    Miriam Frank
    Moyra Cooke
    Myrtle Easton
    Nanci Campion
    Natalie Mullender
    Ngawini Hall
    Nicky Won
    Nicola Brewer Fanefjord
    Nitin Sahare
    Patricia Gross
    Pat Scriven
    Pauline Lumsden
    Pauline Sneddon
    Penny Slack
    Philomena Pinto
    Rachael Breckon
    Rae Abraham
    Raewynne Lory
    Rob Creagh
    Robyn Turner
    Robyn White
    Rosemary Auld
    Rosemary Barrett
    Roslind O'Neill
    Roz Nicol
    Ruth Bonita
    Ruth Busch
    Sally Monks
    Samantha Scott
    Sandra Plummer
    Sandy Plummer
    Sarah Ashmore
    Sarah Gumbley
    Sarah Hardman
    Sara Kimsey
    Sharyn Elliffe
    Shirley Glendinning
    Shona Barker
    Sofia Mella
    Steve Charters
    Sue
    Sue Alexander
    Sue Mercer
    Sue Radford
    Susan Grimsdell
    Susan Mcleod
    Susan Schuler
    Susie Johnston
    Sylvia Dean
    Sylvia Nagl
    Terry Levenberg
    Tim Chamberlain
    Tim Paul
    Trevor Bayly
    Val Cotty
    Verna Cook-Jackson
    Vonne Learmonth
    Wyn Hoadley

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Deborah thanks Rangimarie Kelly and Pikau Digtal for website design and artist Karen Jarvis for her image ‘Writers at the Devonport Library,’ (2023)
Writing Memoir
Defining Memoir
The Participatory Model
Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
​From Writing Course to Book Publication
Your Writing Space
​Writing on a Theme
Reviews of Memoir
Writers Stories
​
Events
​About
Testimonials
What People Say

Media
​Contact
Copyright © 2023 Deborah Shepard
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Conference Paper
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Writer's Stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
    • From Being Mentored to Book Publication
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact