A Stolen Life

by Antonio Buti

  The illusion of normalcy that has held for Bruce’s first six years with the Davies family is shattered in February 1964. A welfare officer from the newly renamed Department of Aboriginal Affairs calls on the Davies household, the first of what are to become regular visits. The reality that Martha has tried so hard to forestall has arrived. And with it comes the start of a noticeable deterioration in Bruce’s behaviour.

  The welfare officers will hear stories of him soiling his underwear, almost on a daily basis, and usually on the way home from school after spending hours playing football with his friends. This makes Frank angry and he threatens to force Bruce to wash his soiled underwear, while Martha continues to wash all his clothes and merely insists that Bruce come home from school before heading off to play. Yet, often, her demands fall on deaf ears. When playing with his friends and even at home, Bruce behaves roughly, resulting in ripped clothing.

  Worse is to follow. Bruce is stealing money from Martha, and Frank decides he must teach him a lesson. He marches Bruce down to the local police station and stands back while the police sergeant rips into Bruce so fiercely that he is terrified. This is what Frank wants. Perhaps he has learned his lesson and will become the good little boy he used to be. The sad reality is that Bruce’s normal childhood is ending.

  At a welfare visit towards the end of the year, Bruce alternates between sitting glumly and being restless. Irritated by his bad manners and not hiding her impatience from welfare officer Barbara Reiff, Martha shouts at Bruce, ‘If your behaviour does not improve, I will have you sent away. You can go live with someone else. They can take care of you.’

  Bruce is to try Martha’s patience to its limit over the next year. On top of his bad behaviour at home, his performance at school deteriorates to the extent that he falls to the bottom of the class. When he is well behaved, Martha wants Bruce to remain with her. When he behaves badly, she wishes he were somewhere else, and at least twice in the presence of Reiff she threatens to send Bruce away.

  It does not help that Martha is unwell. In April 1965 she spends time in hospital for undisclosed reasons. When she is not well, she has no tolerance for Bruce’s bad behaviour. On her good days, when she is calm, she seems happy to have Bruce around. It is clear that each feeds off the other’s moods and this cannot be a secure, nurturing environment for a young boy who is confused about where he belongs.

  When next Reiff visits on 8 September 1965, the situation has worsened further. Bruce is outside playing with a football. Martha tells Reiff that she is suffering from a nervous disorder associated with menopause. She is struggling to cope with Bruce’s behaviour. He is still soiling his pants, chewing his clothes and schoolbooks, and doing badly at school. ‘I have had enough of Bruce,’ she tells Reiff. ‘I am not well. It is becoming too hard for me. If his behaviour does not improve by Christmas he will have to leave our house.’

  Reiff is sympathetic and by the end of the month she has arranged for Martha and Bruce to attend the Child Guidance Clinic, which the South Australian Government set up in 1960. It provides a free service to children with emotional and behavioural problems. Its tests show that Bruce is of average intelligence. After repeated visits, it becomes evident that Bruce’s behaviour is not wilful; in fact, on one occasion, he cries when the counsellor questions him about it. Clearly, it is not only Martha who is suffering emotional strain from the abnormal situation into which the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has thrust them.

  Martha receives treatment for her continuing health problems and she is relieved to see Bruce’s behaviour is improving. Though inconsistent—he still plays roughly—he is no longer soiling his pants. The visits to the Child Guidance Clinic have some positive results, yet Bruce regresses to bad behaviour between treatments. Early in 1966, with the festive season ended and still another four weeks of school holidays for Bruce, Reiff again visits Martha and Bruce at home. Her report after this visit is not good. Bruce has become more irresponsible and the improved behaviour she had recently reported has gone. He tears his clothes, refuses to wipe his nose, destroys and loses his toys.

  By the end of January, Martha and Bruce are back at the Child Guidance Clinic. They are to meet Dr Moffatt, who has just recently commenced at the clinic. After three years in general practice, she moved to psychiatry and particularly child psychiatry in 1959. Clinic supervisor Dr Le Page, with whom Dr Moffatt studied medicine at Adelaide University, has enticed her to join the clinic. Dr Moffatt diagnoses Martha as borderline psychotic. Her illness is not helped by her daughter Carol living at the family home with her two young children, having returned after her marriage collapsed. Having to deal with Bruce’s erratic behaviour is difficult enough for Martha. This extra burden makes her life almost unbearable.

  Martha and Bruce make a number of trips to the clinic throughout the year. Martha’s relationship with the clinic is at times tense and difficult; she misses appointments and constantly disagrees with clinic staff. Nevertheless, the clinic treatment does have benefits, even if they are fleeting. Bruce’s behaviour improves, he is less destructive and, for a while, he shows greater appreciation of the Davies family. There is little doubt, too, that Martha’s threats to send Bruce away also have had some effect. At times all seems well. Miss Lee, a welfare officer from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, is impressed when she visits the Davies family in July 1966. She reports that Bruce’s behaviour is much improved and that the Davies family treat him as one of their own.

  Again, though, the improvement is transient. On 3 August, Bruce, who is only nine years old, leaves the house at around half past five one afternoon, saying he wants to catch up with some mates to play football. But that is just a ruse. He has been misbehaving at home and wants to get away. He heads to the local park and kicks the football by himself until the sun goes down. He then moves to a corner of the park and hides behind a tree. As the hours go by, his resolve to stay away from home weakens. It is dark but he is afraid that if he returns home, Frank will take him down to the police station again and this time he might just leave him there.

  A nine-year-old boy, alone in the dark and cold, can only take so much. In the early hours of the morning, Bruce is back at the Davies home where, like any parents, Martha and Frank have been worried sick, imagining all sorts of disasters befalling their little boy. When he does finally come through the door, the worry gets subsumed in the stress he has caused. Yet the emotion that overwhelms all others is relief and the nine-year-old boy is soon tucked up in a warm bed.

  It is nine years since Thora has seen her baby Bruce. And in Victor Harbor, while Bruce is calling off his great escape in Campbelltown, she languishes in her own desperation to be reunited with her baby. Yes, that is how she still thinks of him, her baby.

  Cyril is now off the scene; she could take no more of his abuse. At times he had been in paid and stable employment in Murray Bridge, but his problem with alcohol affected his ability to work and to provide for Thora and the family. Her legacy of that impulsive decision to marry is bad memories and no income, though she does have three more beautiful children. She has received some assistance from Joe and, with further government assistance, has moved with her six children to Victor Harbor.

  Joe died on 14 January 1966, aged sixty-two. So Bruce would never see his biological father again. He, of course, would have no memory of that man who carried little, sick Brucey in his arms from One Mile Camp to Meningie on that fateful Christmas Day. He would never hear the dad who loved him tell him how much he had suffered since that day.

  On 13 September 1966 Thora telephones Mr Bennett at the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. He has responsibility for the Victor Harbor region. A few years earlier, when Thora and Cyril were living at Tailem Bend, Bennett visited their home—Taylor’s shack, it was called—on the riverbank. She recalls that Bennett was not impressed with the living conditions. The shack was not waterproof, and it was damp and drafty. Thora was pregnant with Devon and suffering toxaemia, as before, and she had a he
art condition. The shack, Bennett decided, was an inappropriate place to bring a newborn child. He arranged for Thora to be admitted to Tailem Bend Hospital for treatment. He also facilitated further financial assistance from the Department.

  Now, three years later, Mr Bennett is considering another request from Thora. She tells him she wants to see Bruce, who she has not seen since he was one year old. Mr Bennett asks why she has not requested to see Bruce before now. ‘Until now I did not have decent housing but now I do,’ she tells him. She knows Mr Bennett will remember Taylor’s shack. She adds, ‘I didn’t want to ask for custody of Bruce until I had a nice home for him to live in.’

  Mr Bennett agrees to progress Thora’s request to see her son but, from intuition born of experience, he warns that the process, after so many years, will need to be gradual. They must handle it carefully to reduce the potential to disturb Bruce emotionally. Mr Bennett contacts Miss Lee and Miss Clark at the Department. They have charge of Bruce’s file.

  When the child welfare workers speak to Martha, she tells them she is reluctant to have Thora come back into Bruce’s life. She understands Thora’s feelings but it has been so long. Bruce will not even remember her. How will he react? She has been through so much anguish with Bruce’s bad behaviour. Will this only make it worse? She brings Bruce into the lounge room and explains that Misses Lee and Clark have come to arrange a meeting with his biological mother. She emphasises the biological bit, though Bruce does not react. He is quiet; he looks confused, yet he offers no protest. The women keep talking and Bruce seems to be getting the picture. Still he makes no response. To the child welfare workers, that is a green light. They will go ahead and arrange a reunion with Thora.

  Sunday, 20 November 1966. Bruce turns ten. There will be presents. A cake. But first …

  Bruce will see his natural mother for the first time since her brief return to the shack at One Mile Camp just before Christmas 1957. Martha will not be there. She has dropped Bruce off at the headquarters of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Adelaide. He waits in a sterile meeting room. Eyes down, the floor his focus.

  When Thora enters the room with Hilda, George and Tom, Bruce only briefly raises his eyes then again studies the floor. Misses Lee and Clark watch anxiously.

  Thora quietly says, ‘Hello.’ If Bruce hears it, he doesn’t acknowledge her greeting.

  ‘Hello Bruce,’ she says again. It’s too soon to call him Brucey.

  He raises his eyes, ‘Hello.’

  Thora lets out a quiet sigh of relief. She remembers only the smell of the little baby he was when she last saw him. Briefly, she hugs her baby. Hilda, Brucey’s big sister when they were together in the shack, hugs him too. His brothers simply shake his hand.

  Thora has brought snacks. She asks Hilda to give Bruce a bottle of Coke, a banana and lollies. Bruce gratefully accepts them and says thank you, as Martha has taught him to do.

  Miss Lee relaxes now that the awkward first greetings are done with.

  ‘Isn’t it great that you are meeting on Bruce’s birthday,’ she says to Thora.

  Miss Lee’s observation takes Thora by surprise. For a moment she hesitates, then she says, ‘Yes, we brought the snacks to celebrate.’

  Two hours pass quickly. Bruce is feeling at ease and looks pleased when Thora says that she hopes he can come to stay with her soon. ‘Maybe in the summer school holidays?’ Then the meeting is over.

  Miss Clark drives Bruce back to the Davies house. He is excited as he tells Martha about his meeting with Thora, Hilda, George and Tom. ‘Can I go and stay with them during the school holidays?’

  ‘We’ll see,’ Martha replies, not willing to commit just yet. Martha is happy for Bruce but not so much that Thora has re-entered his life. She fears losing him and she says so to Miss Clark when Bruce is out of earshot. Today is his birthday, however, and Martha wants it to be a Davies family celebration. ‘We,’ she says to herself, ‘are his real family.’

  Two weeks later, Bruce is limping on his right leg. He had the same limp, but on the other leg, six months earlier. He had complained then of a pain in his left leg. There was no medical explanation then and there is none now. He complains of pain in his groin. But a visit to the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and an X-ray reveals no abnormality. The limp and pain disappear after three weeks. Medical staff and Miss Clark wonder whether the limp was the result of stress over his school exams. He did pass them; is that why the limp has gone? On the other hand, maybe his visit with Thora and his brothers and sister has unnerved him. Perhaps, they reason, as time has passed, that fear, too, has passed.

  But when Miss Clark visits Martha on 22 December, she hears that Bruce’s behaviour since reuniting with his natural family has not been good. Martha tells her that sometimes he speaks very favourably about Thora and wants to spend time with his natural family; at other times, he seems scared about not being with Martha. She also tells Miss Clark that lately Bruce has been very secretive and non-communicative with her. Miss Clark realises Bruce’s problems are not so easy to explain.

  On 6 January 1967, nine years to the day since Martha and Frank brought Bruce home with them, Miss Clark visits Martha again. She wants to discuss preparations for Bruce’s visit to his natural family at the end of the month. The meeting is somewhat tense. Martha has mixed emotions about Bruce reuniting with Thora.

  When she returns to her office, Miss Clark also seems apprehensive. What is Bruce expecting? She notes in Bruce’s file that, according to Martha, he has built up fantastic ideas of what Thora’s home is like. He is excited about his forthcoming visit. Since the meeting with his natural family, he has been referring to Martha as his foster mother. She is not mummy anymore. Miss Clark wonders, ‘Will the reality live up to his imaginings?’

  Martha feels hurt. Silently, she justifies her hurt. I have raised him for the last nine years. Thora had him for only one. How could she know his needs as well as I do?

  Bruce spends the last weekend in January at Thora’s home in Victor Harbor. He plays backyard cricket with George and Tom, and talks to Hilda and Thora. He seems happy to be with his biological mother and siblings, and he gets on well with his half-sister, Karen, and half-brothers, Cyril and Devon Karpany. Yet when he asks, ‘Can I stay here with you?’ Thora is surprised. The question has come out of the blue, shortly before Bruce is due to go back to Adelaide. Thora has been wondering whether it feels strange for Bruce to be away from Martha and if he might be feeling a bit homesick.

  She answers cautiously, ‘Bruce, let’s see what happens. Maybe for now you can come down during the Easter holidays.’

  Miss Lee arrives and it is time to go. There are hugs and laughter when Bruce says his goodbyes. No one cries but Thora is sad to see him go.

  Bruce talks happily on the drive back to Adelaide. He has obviously enjoyed his stay and does not give any indication that he has missed his foster family. Miss Lee wonders but doesn’t ask the question. ‘I would like to stay with Thora,’ he tells Miss Lee, ‘but I would miss my bike and my toys.’ He does not mention Martha. Is that her answer?

  In early March, little more than a month later, a Miss Sheppard from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs pays a visit to the Davies home. She is a student social worker who has come to speak separately to Martha and Bruce. She finds that things are not rosy.

  Martha complains that she is finding it difficult to cope with Bruce’s behaviour. He shows lack of care with money and with his clothing, and Martha just can’t seem to get through to him. She tells Miss Sheppard that this change in his behaviour began when Thora came back into his life. When she tells him off or tries to correct him, Bruce shoots back, ‘You are my foster mother, Thora is my real mother.’ Martha is hurt and angry. She is also apprehensive about the future with Bruce. She would be more upset if she knew what Miss Sheppard has not told her—that Thora has been in touch with the Aboriginal Affairs Board (formerly the Aborigines Protection Board). Bruce’s surprise question seems to have steeled
her resolve: she wants custody of Bruce.

  Unaware of Thora’s request, Martha continues to pour out her grievances to Miss Sheppard. She is generally disappointed with Bruce, not happy that he won’t read the books she selects for him and not satisfied with his reading and writing standards. She concedes that he has been passing his exams and has many school friends. At times, though, out of frustration with his behaviour, she threatens to send Bruce away. She admits that the threat works only sometimes and then only for a while. ‘I’m finding it hard to cope,’ she tells Miss Sheppard.

  On that note, Martha ends her recital of Bruce’s poor behaviour, which she sheets home to Thora’s re-emergence in his life. She brings Bruce into the lounge room, introduces him to Miss Sheppard and leaves. He is quiet, unforthcoming. The social worker will not be put off. She talks about the things Bruce likes: football and his friends at school. He lowers his guard and opens up. Yes, he admits, his behaviour has not been good. But he does not want to be sent away. ‘I want to stay with my foster mother.’ Miss Sheppard notes that he refers to his Martha as foster mother. She probes, ‘Why do you want to stay with her?’

  ‘If I go away, I will lose my friends at school and my bike,’ he answers. Nothing about missing Martha, nothing about Frank or those he has known as his brother and sisters. Nothing about love. What he fears losing are material things, all external to the family he has spent the past nine of his ten years with. A pensive Miss Sheppard returns to the Department to write up her file notes. How much, she ponders, does Martha’s emotional state contribute to Bruce’s ambivalence about where he wants to live?