Leonie Christopherson's latest book, her grandmother's story…
‘The children might get hungry,' she thought, but all there was in the corner pantry cupboard was a tin of sardines and some stale bread. She wrestled with the can and opener and slashed the base of her thumb on the jagged lid. She staunched the blood on a piece of old sheet and continued to make the sandwiches. She ignored its throbbing as she marshalled the five children, tucked a flask of brandy in her bag and climbed into the hired pony and trap to catch the Melbourne to Sydney train as it came through Wagga. Tess, as usual, was a wonderful help with the younger ones. Leone and Francis, only two and three, were asleep instantly. Joe and Millicent squirmed and wriggled with excitement – going on a train! And in the middle of the night. Nursing her injured hand and reeking of brandy from the flask which had leaked in her bag, a lesser woman would have given up the idea of leaving her husband and gone home. She was thirty-four years of age and had been married for ten years. It was 1909…
The Author
Leonie Christopherson A.M.
Photo by Heidi Victoria MP
Leonie Christopherson wrote her first book aged eleven. ‘It was terrible,' she says. A published author and editor, she has lived in twenty different locations, five different countries and five different states in Australia. She has always wanted to write in tribute about her amazing grandmother and regrets that it has taken her sixty-eight years to do so. She hopes this book will be an inspiration to any mother who finds herself in a difficult relationship as Teresa Angelica did in 1909