17 I left house not home. I had to escape the madness of what I knew I did not fit into.
I had met another JW who was also not happy with the nonsense of so called religion. So I left the central coast and moved to Windsor and lived in a caravan on his parents farm. That turned into a mishmash of issues of people not understanding me and I eventually moved out into an apartment sharing with my boyfriend's sister.
That didnt last long either. My main focus was Classical Ballet. I had found a beautiful teacher of the Cecchetti Method in Richmond. Raoul Parker had been in the corps de ballet of Western Australia. He was so lovely and gentle in his teaching.
This was the beginning of my childhood dream to finally dance, which I had been denied of as a child due to the cult.
I learnt to make my muscles do things I never dreamed they could do.. but it was not without pain.
All I wanted to do was dance, but I also had to survive and the getting away from the indoctrinated families was choking my freedom. I had a job working in a plastics factory and that was quite toxic too.. The fumes off the PVC was horrid and some of the staff could not be trusted. Like stealing your cash pay cheque when you went for a bathroom break.
The greatest shock came when I was given a ride on a Harley by a bikey, who picked me up from Richmond where I was living and dropped me at ACI plastics in Windsor to work.
He was dead 10 minutes later. Sped off the road heading through Vineyard ( I think it was ) and died instantly.
My boyfriend was horrified as was I. He made a condition of me being the pillion passenger , if only he rode safely, which he did. I never knew what happened after that which led him to die.
