“The damage done tonight will resound down the generations!” These words, spoken in anger by an outraged mother in the year 1904, will prove prophetic. Fourteen years later, a child enters the world, innocent, yet blighted by the repercussions of a distant crime, committed on a summer night, in remote Western Australia. From the beginning, the odds are stacked against Margaret as she is robbed of her childhood. In due course, Margaret reaches adulthood and to her horror, finds herself powerless to prevent the outcome she most dreads. The malevolent forces of destiny reach down to a further generation and into the lives of her children. This story is a tribute to the courage and tenacity of a mother’s love. It plays out against the backdrop of a period spanning two world wars, a great depression and the dawn of a new millenium. Through all of this, Margaret faces the additional challenges of being a single mother in an unforgiving era. The story follows the relentless power of generational forces, pitted against the strength of the human spirit. It relives one woman’s heroic struggle to change the future. Margaret forges a path – ultimately – to release and redemption. Margaret’s story is told by the person who shared so closely in this journey of struggle and redemption: her daughter.
Christine Lynch is the daughter of Margaret, the woman whose story deserved to be told. A graduate of the university of Western Australia, she pursued a career in the field of education. Once retired, it was time to address a lifelong urge to write and there was no doubt in her mind as to the story she needed to tell. The book is dedicated to the memory of her remarkable mother. Christine lives in Perth, Western Australia, with her husband, Greg. She has four adult offspring and seven grandchildren.