Last night, in my Australian Culture and Society class, we had a guest lecturer. Jennifer Newman is an Aboriginal woman (snake woman, as she called herself). She is half Aborininal and half white (Irish I think...) and is very proud of her heritage.

During the class, she told us one of the most amazing stories I have ever heard in my life so far... When she finished the story, I had tears in my eyes and they were ready to come off rolling down.

Jenny's parents got married before the "protection laws" in Australia were taken away. So they married at a difficult time, where it is basically not accepted by anyone from both societies and I believe, not by the government really. Many years later, at Jenny's sister's wedding, she asked her mom how it was like back in the days when they got married. Her mom said that she was going to make a cup of tea, and only came back to the room an hour or so later. She never told Jenny anything directly about her marriage with Jenny's father. However, she told Jenny little stories about her family.

One of the stories mom told Jenny was about mom's aunt Lilly. Aunt Lilly married an Aboriginal man Arthur back in the 1920s which was totally unacceptable by the society. But she did. Mom remembered that when she was little, when there was a family reunion, Arthur would come home with Aunt Lilly but would stay outside of the house, just hang out with the kids. Mom was sad about it because she liked Arthur.

Came the war and like many Aboriginal men, Arthur went to the war. At the same time, Aunt Lilly had a nervous breakdown and was sent to the hospital for 2 years. During those 2 years, Arthur kept on writing post cards and letters to Lilly but they were all stopped by her family. In the hospital, Lilly kept on asking if Arthur wrote, but was told that nothing was heard of him and it was probably because of the war. Things were difficult to come through. On the other end of the ocean, Arthur never got any replies from Lilly and thought of the same thing.

Lilly got out of the hospital, moved away to another town and became a servant for a farmer helping him taking care of the house and kids. And nothing was known about Arthur.

Jenny, being a professor at University of Technology in Sydney, took some students down to Canberra for some Aborigines origine research. The students were making a list of names of people they wanted to look up. Jenny, by chance, saw one of the students wrote down the surname of Arthur and asked him if he knew Arthur. The student asked her why she asked about Arthur, so Jenny told him the story about Aunt Lilly and Arthur. The student had a smile on his face.. and said at the end of Jenny's story... I know Arthur, he is my father.

So he told Jenny the rest of the story...

Arthur came back from war and went back to the town where he and Jenny lived but only to find an empty house. No one in town seemed to know where Lilly was. He moved away and met a Chinese lady. Never married her, but they had 13 children together. He kept on telling her: I can't marry you because I am married, I just don't know where Lilly is.

One day, he went to the town where Lilly moved to, and while walking down the street, he saw this familiar face. She saw him too... It was Lilly. Arthur took Lilly back with him and introduced her to the family. She was accepted by the family.

They both became too old and moved into one of those homes for old people... spent their last years together and are barried together.

Ain't life funny and amazing??