Maleny author Patty Beecham has written her early memoir, ‘Growing up, Rocky’ based on her family life in Rockhampton and Central Queensland.
“This my story of an innocent childhood in a fractured family as we learn to live with each other, only to be torn apart after a tragic accident. It’s a Coming-of-Age story with my dad, Canon John Warby OAM, as a community leader and Anglican priest. It’s a look back in time and reminiscing of a softer, kinder world, dealing with the changing world of the Seventies, and growing up in a small country town,” Patty shared.
“It’s a story of survival, overcoming bullies, and bringing myself up These stories are the skipping stones of my life. A little from here and there, until the end is reached. Think of this book like a patchwork quilt, with stories and timelines gently overlapping.”
This is an important personal story of a turbulent political time in the early 1960s with life on Lockhart River Mission and the changing times within the community. A gentle reminiscing told through the protagonist Patty as she recounts her upbringing, and the difficulties of a family learning to live under the one roof.
Patty’s three older siblings attended boarding school, returning for only six weeks each year. Life on the Mission was also fragmented with their father out to sea for six weeks at a time on the pearling luggers. The first time Patty lived with her entire family was when she was four-years old!
The story notes the changing society with television and the Pill, and how a family struggle emotionally when the younger brother, a talented self-taught artist, is tragically killed two days before a family wedding.
Patty’s mother buys a corner shop at Keppel Sands, a small seaside community 40kms from Rockhampton, Patty has to learn to cope with school bullies in her first year of High School, and helping her father within the small, rowdy church community.
Rockhampton people still remember with great fondness Canon John Warby and Mrs Bunty Warby, as leading public figures in the small town. The group of people on the Facebook group ‘Rockhampton: Remember When’ encouraged Patty to tell her own story, and without their gentle and persistent encouragement, this book would never have been written. Canon Warby was a Queenslander of the Year in 1987 and received an OAM for his work with the Indigenous in later years.
“I’m happily married, the mother of our two adult sons, and spend my retirement living between Brisbane and Maleny,” said Patty. “I am already writing the next 40 years of my life as a follow-up memoir, and I suggest you wear your seatbelt! I have always written and since retiring, have published two poetry collections: The Poetry of Patty Beecham, and These Days I live in Brissy.”
Patty’s poetry has been published in the international magazine Prism, winning several awards including ‘The Professor Bruce Dawe, AO, Patronal Prize’. I have had articles published in the Courier Mail newspaper, ABC Brisbane and Crikey.com.au.I was Australia’s first Roving Reporter for ABC Breakfast Radio, and the first Funeral Photographer in Australia.
‘Growing up, Rocky’ will also be available in Digital and Audio formats.