by Lucy Palmer
To Caroline Jones AO, one of my first friends in Australia and a wonderful support for us all. Thank you for your wise advice, and your extraordinary example of a dignified and private spirituality.
To Petrea King, for inspiring the title.
My deep gratitude to publisher Jane Palfreyman whose passionate belief in this memoir gave me the fortitude to keep going, and to my editor Siobhan Cantrill for her steady hand, her eagle eye, and her compassion.
To Nina Kareng and her husband, Maseus, from Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Our family would not be the same without the years of loving kindness you have shown us all.
I would also like to thank my community of long-standing PNG friends who were there in the early days of our marriage and stood by us all the way: Dame Meg Taylor, Daisy Taylor, Sir Mekere and Lady Ros Morauta, Sir Julius and Lady Stella Chan, David and Jo Frecker, Annmaree O’Keefe AM, Bill and Elaine Farmer, Charles and Kathy Lepani, Sir Wilson and Lady Winifred Kamit, and Susannah Wamp.
I would like to thank Drew Lindsay and Karl Zabel for so generously giving me a quiet space to write.
Finally I would like to thank all of my friends who remain very close to my heart, the teachers of the Southern Highlands and the many families in this wonderful community who have helped us.
Your gifts will never be forgotten.