Sarah Kanowski

I was closer to the window and, like, myself and my sister, my twin sister, we were pressed against the window of the car looking up at my mum at the top of the stairs while she screamed and cried.

And we just thought, why?

You know, like, why is she so upset?

We do this all the time.

But there was also this feeling of this is it.

Like, this is the end of whatever this was and now we're going with my auntie.

I think we just stayed there for the most part.

Like, we didn't go home again.

In part.

I think there was, like...

We were around conversations about it, but I don't think they ever spoke to us through it.

I don't remember it that way.

I don't remember them sitting down and saying... I do remember a couple of conversations, we're just going to stay here now, it's going to be us now.

And I remember the day that my auntie and uncle came home from court when there was a custody...

dispute over who us kids would go to.

And the message was basically no one else wants us.

So we'll go in with my auntie.

She did want us, but it was like, you know, mum and dad didn't show up to court.

They didn't show any, you know, way of changing their lifestyles to support having children.

And my auntie said, you know, if she didn't take us, then we're probably going to be split up into foster care or something like that.