Broken: The Extraordinary Story of Survival by One of Australia's Forgotten Children

by Sandi Gamble

When Sandi Gamble heard the Australian prime minister on TV apologising to 500,000 Forgotten Australians for the abuse and neglect they had endured as children in “care” in the post-World War II era, something within her cracked and she began to cry. The former Magdalene laundry orphanage inmate, who never felt she fitted in, realised she was a Forgotten Australian. Thus began Sandi’s journey back to her broken past. She had to reacquaint herself with Beverley, the girl she had left behind when she changed her to Sandi. The painful memories started flooding in; the memories that held the key to her life-long struggles with depression, alienation, anxiety, suicidal tendency, obsessive compulsiveness, and passivity when dealing with manipulative or authoritative people. Broken begins as a diary to process the memories of the little girl who was abandoned by her gambling, spendthrift father, and then her mother. Left at home for hours unattended while her mother worked and drank her misery away, little Beverley was left to her own devices to survive. This is the story of how one women faced her shattered past, looking it squarely in the eye. Sandi Gamble shares her story for all Forgotten Australians, their families, and those seeking to be inspired by an extraordinary story.

426 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2013

About the author

‘It is my wish to teach others how to be the best they can be.’ – Sandi Gamble - Author

I am a public speaker, retired life coach and author who is passionate about assisting other people to rise above past traumas and issues that confront them daily.

My memoir Broken is the soundtrack of my life, it is a raw conversational style book that covers the trauma and abuse that I suffered as a child and eventually proves that if you remain resilient and hold on to hope that you can overcome adversity and rise above it.

I endured and overcame some of the worst abuse that a child and young adult could go through, at the hands of many trusted adults until one day, I said “Enough”! And then, I pursued positive ways to change my life.

My mission is to offer you the strategies that I use in the hope that you too can experience the best life you can. To do this I share and connect regularly with my followers through my website and Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSandiG...

My driving force is the need to find other children who lived at St Aidan's Orphanage in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, and to assist them to reunite with the many of us who have already sought each other out. I maintain a list of children, now adults, known as Forgotten Australians who were placed in this orphanage, and I’m still looking for you if you are one of them.

I organise a reunion in Melbourne every year for us, so if you are out there or know of someone who grew up at St Aidan’s, please feel free to message me at slg@outlook.com.au. Or tell them to get in touch with me.

I hope you get the chance to read and understand my story. If it helps you, great, it has done what I set out to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read my Bio. I wish you nothing but beautiful tomorrows.

Sandi

Reviews

[Cate · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's difficult to review this book. On one hand it is written with incredible generosity and is a remarkable story of struggle and survival: a neglected childhood, childhood sexual abuse, limited opportunities, an abusive marriage, the loss of two children and finding genuine love & solace in a loving marriage and family. But on the other, it's just not well written. I did not feel a connection to Sandi, at times I was left questioning what she wrote. There was an emotional hollowness that is not to do with Sandi's story per se, but the poor quality of the writing. Minor gripe: BADLY EDITED!!!!! spelling mistakes, words running in together. Not good and doesn't make for a professional publication. I just felt the "why" question was unexplored. Maybe there isn't an answer why. It needed more colour, texture rather than being a series of vignettes. I want to stress that my critique is the writing, not Sandi herself. Sandi is no doubt a survivor and props to her for having had a go, having her website and being a life coach. She'd probably be awesome in person. On the page though, it all fell a bit flat.