Broken

Be prepared to be shocked. Broken is candid and raw. When Sandi Gamble heard the Australian prime minister on TV apologizing 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, realized 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 name 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 began 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 woman 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.