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‘Lt Dorset, how may I be of service?’
‘I thought Geoffrey had told you?’ She glanced at Geoffrey. He gave an encouraging nod and sat back, folding his arms across his chest.
Mr Altmann uncapped his fountain pen and smiled at her. ‘The bare bones only. It would be helpful if you could tell me your story in your own words, starting with your daughter’s father.’
Meg nodded and folded her hands together on the table. ‘Very well, Mr Altmann.’
‘Please – call me Roger. I can’t be Mr Altmann to you and Roger to Geoffrey here.’
She nodded. ‘In that case, please call me Margaret. I met Jennifer’s father – that’s Corporal Michael Seamus Flanagan – when we were evacuated from Darwin during the first bombing raid. That was the morning of the nineteenth of February 1942. We travelled down to Adelaide River where we were both instructed to stay and work in the hospital. The River became an important—’
‘Can you focus on your relationship with Michael.’
‘Seamus. His father was the only Michael in their family, he said.’
Roger underlined Seamus’s name in his notes. ‘Go on.’
‘We fell in love and he asked me to marry him. I said yes the day he was transferred out.’
‘And your daughter Jennifer – she was conceived when?’
Heat rose in Meg’s cheeks at the clinical dissection of her love. It had been special, and private, but the solicitor wanted to know intimate details. In front of Geoffrey!
Meg cleared her throat. ‘At the River. She was conceived one night before I told Seamus I’d marry him.’
There,she thought. Judge me for that.
But Roger surprised her. ‘Understandable, especially in wartime. And did Seamus know you were with child when he was transferred?’
‘You don’t think I’m terrible for making a child out of wedlock?’
‘It isn’t for me to pass judgement, but I don’t believe a civilised society has the right to condemn people for their choices. When did you realise you were pregnant?’
Her appreciation of Geoffrey’s friend grew, and she began to feel a glimmer of hope. ‘I suspected it when I threw up unexpectedly one morning. That was before I was transferred, but my pregnancy was only confirmed after I got to Townsville. I chanced to meet a doctor who was an obstetrician—’
She glanced at Geoffrey. If he hadn’t known before that Don Newton had provided the diagnosis, he would now. ‘Once Dr Newton confirmed it, I wrote to my fiancé. He was thrilled and said we were to be married when he got leave. He was killed in action. By that time, I was here living with Vera Burnett, who offered to care for my baby when I went back north to nurse.’
‘So, this is Vera’s house and she cared for your daughter for what – three years?’
Regret clogged Meg’s throat. If she hadn’t accepted that last rotation in place of her friend and had flown home instead, would she have been able to save Vera? If she’d flown home when she was meant to, for certain Jennifer wouldn’t have been taken by the nuns and given away like a Christmas present to some other family.
‘Yes, three years.’
On and on went Roger, drawing out details of her visit to the convent, the nuns who had offered only adoption of her baby, and the shock of her recent visit.
‘I understand the convent offers the only hope for many young women and abandoned children, but in your case, it is clear they got it wrong. However, there are laws that protect children, and both their biological parents and the adoptive parents. The 1921 Amendments to Infant Life Protection Act are an important aspect here, and probably the key point we need to address. The Act requires that parents renounce all claims upon the child—’
‘But I didn’t renounce anything.’
Roger held up one hand and nodded. ‘I know, but the fact of your leaving your child to be raised by a non-relative is likely to be made use of by the other side. The Catholic Church is powerful, and their solicitors may try to construct a view of you as a mother who abandoned her child in order to pursue her own interests.’
Despite the warmth of the night, a chill ran down Meg’s spine. She’d said much the same to Gerry. Would her friend be called as a witness?
Geoffrey shook his head. ‘That should be easy enough to disprove. You could subpoena Margaret’s service record. That speaks for itself of her commitment to her patients and her nursing. There is nothing frivolous or self-indulgent in the work she undertook. She joined as a RAAF nurse in 1941 and served in several hospitals over the next three years then was on the first medical air evacuation in 1944. She’s worked tirelessly since then to recover and repatriate our men and women from Pacific arenas of war.’
Roger made notes on the pad. ‘We’ll tender her service record of course, but as a single mother, we are fighting a long-held social belief that mothers take care of their children, regardless of their skills in essential areas. The 1905 Act might also be an issue. It focuses more on the needs, as opposed to the rights, of the child. Every child needs to be looked after, and people willing tolook after another's child are assumed to be 'good'.’
Bile rose in Meg’s throat. She saw where Roger was going with this. ‘So, if the adoptive parents are good, the biological parent must be the opposite. They’ll cast me as some kind of Jezebel and claim I’m an unfit mother.’
