I got on the phone to RSVP and the official I spoke to said, ‘Oh, why don’t you bring your husband with you?’ I had to say, ‘We’re not married, but anyway he can’t come. I can’t leave the kids unattended at Delaney House, they need to have somebody there caring for them.’ So Mark said he’d look after the kids, and the waiters at Government House served tea and sandwiches, and the Governor made a nice speech, saying, ‘We all remember when families who had a child with a severe disability had to put them in an institution and I’m so glad those days are over.’ And she said, ‘Aren’t we lucky to have these carers, who take them into their homes to give the parents a break?’

Then she said, ‘So give yourselves a huge pat on the back and a big round of applause for the difference you’re making in the lives of these children. Hip, hip, HOORAY! Hip, hip, HOORAY!’

Whatever people say now, it was pretty difficult not to feel a bit proud of myself that day, Jack, and it was a nice party they put on, with sandwiches and scones and jam and cream, and fruit with custard in little glasses. Then, when I got home to Bondi, Mark said the local paper, the Wentworth Courier, had called and they wanted to do a story about the fact that we’d been given a prize.

I called the number he’d written down and they sent around a reporter and a photographer who took a photo of me sitting out on the veranda with one of the children (not with their face, because you’re not allowed to show their faces) and the story was all about how we’d take kids nobody else would, and the headline on it was, ‘The Carers Who Can’t Say No’.

They quoted me saying it was an honour to have the kids, and so yes, it was all very nice, but then I could have killed Mark, because just when I went inside to get a cup of tea for the reporter and a plate of jam tarts, he moved in on her, probably trying to chat her up, and when I came out I heard him saying, ‘We’re making $2100 a week.’ I had to cut him off, saying, ‘Mark, you know you’re not allowed to talk about the allowances the children receive,’ because actually, when you think about it, the money wasn’t for us, it was for their food and other things that the kids needed.

Anyway, like I told the reporter, and like I’m telling you, we didn’t do it for the money, or not only for the money. We were actually trying to help, and everyone was praising us and say how proud they were of the work we were doing, my dad included, and I know that because when I rang him to tell him about the prize he said, ‘It’s great what you’re doing, Snow. You’ve really made something of yourself.’