Moana Hope

And the allowance was for her to buy something for herself.

That would be ridiculous.

It would be for her to go do the food shopping and her to pay the rent when he didn't blow it on the pokies, that is.

And so I said to her, so at what point did you, she said, well, when he died, I had to go to Centrelink and close his account.

And the lady at Centrelink said, well, I need you to prove you are who you are.

What was the last amount of money that went into his bank?

And she said, well, I've never seen his bank, so I don't know.

And this is why I have so much love and respect for teachers.

Because I would go to school, which was primary school.

And I remember I used to go, there was one teacher.

She was Mrs. Harrison.

She was my teacher.

And I remember her because I never knew that anything happened to me was weird, but I felt something from her that felt like care.

And I'd never felt that before.

And so whenever I went to school, it was the only time of my life as a child where I didn't have to live in fear.

So I had six hours where I could just be a free kid, a kid that didn't have to worry about walking around the corner or doing something wrong.

And so I knew that she knew because she could see the marks across my legs and backs.

I knew that she knew.

But it was what she did was like every time, like not every time, but she'd come in and she'd be like, how are you?

I'm like, what do you mean?