Gertie: -A Descendant of Convicts

Convicts! That's what my forebears were; the lowest of the low in Britain! I wanted to know them, Catherine Brennan from Dublin, and David Roberts from Gloucestershire. What were they like? What did they want? Sent out here to the other side of the world; how did they cope? I was angry that I did not know and was never told; nothing like this was taught at school; even my parents did not know! We were taught about Cook, McArthur, Bligh and others but what about the real people who settled Australia; the ones who had dirt under their fingernails, blisters on their hands until they hardened; the battlers? The ones who were never again to hear from their family in Britain but had the courage to tear at the wild country they were dumped in; to live in a slab hut, to work in the burning sun, to love, to have children, then their children having children and so on right down to me? Who am I? Now I am 92 years old, in a nursing home, unable to walk or do the private things for myself that I used to do! I don't want to die angry, I want to know! I want to love!