RHONDA NORBURY

Beaten and Broken:

A Story of Survival

ISBN- 978-1-742842-99-8

Published by Book Pal

www.bookpal.com.au

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FOREWARD - BY TRISH SCHNEIDER

When my dear friend, Rhonda Norbury asked me to write the foreward for her novel, I was both humbled and thrilled. It is my pleasure to be part of this important project and to support Rhonda's quest to tell her amazing true story.

 

I first met Rhonda in 1990, when a career move took me to work at Cairns Base Hospital in tropical Far North Queensland, as the Co-Ordinator of Midwifery Education. Rhonda was also employed as a midwife at the hospital. The hospital grapevine quickly alerted her to the fact that I had an academic background, and she sought me out to ask for support and direction about tertiary study for herself. "This is the way nursing is going", I remember her telling me ... and I do not want to be left behind!" I quickly got the impression that Rhonda would never be left behind! She was bright, enthusiastic and determined. I was more than happy to devote the extra time it would take to support her.

 

Over time, we became firm friends and I met her lovely children, Jarl and Cleis. I came to know her as a strong, intelligent and resourceful woman, who was passionate about her children and her chosen career ... midwifery. She worked hard to singularly support her family and as we grew closer, I came to realise that this was a woman capable of great love - a woman who was a survivor, a woman who had the capacityh to achieve whatever she set her mind to.

 

Rhonda had been beaten and broken many times before I met her, but had always picked herself up and moved on. She had been tested and passed, sometimes by the skin of her teeth, but always with enthusiasm and great pride. Rhonda's special friends are God's army of angels, to which she is deeply devoted. Her angels pepper the story with unconditional love and support - and just sometimes a touch of humour.

 

Rhonda's book is the true story of her family's survival when confronted with incredible trauma. October 1996 saw Rhonda tested in a way she never imagined. Her beautiful 18-year-old daughter, Cleis, was brutally bashed and left bleeding to death in a city alleyway, after becoming separated from her brother, Jarl, and his friends during a night out in Cairns. It was the night the beautiful tropical tourist town lost its innocence. Such a senseless and shameful crime stunned the community and shocked the seasoned police officers who attended the scene of the assault.

 

I was with Rhonda when she received the call from Jarl about the unidentified woman who was now the victim of a brutal assault. He had good reason to believe that the woman might be Cleis. I listened carefully as she talked to the emergency department at the hospital and described the unicorn tattoo Cleis had on her right shoulder. I drove Rhonda to the Cairns police station, and stood tearfully by as she identified Cleis's bloody clothing and jewellery. I held her hand as she calmly answered the many questions levelled at her by the detectives and hugged her as she digested the dreadful news that Cleis would probably die.

 

I then accompanied her home to pack for the trip to Townsville. Cleis, as is the case with all head injury patients, had been flown to the regional centre for specialist treatment. Beautiful Cleis had been pummelled to the brink of death by an unknown assailant. She hovered between life and death and eventually lapsed into a coma, from which she would not awaken for many months. Cleis had the very best of medical and nursing care, but it was the unwavering devotion of her loving mother that brought her back to life to face a lengthy period of rehabilitation as she strode headlong towards independent living.

 

Beaten and Broken is a remarkable story of survival of both Rhonda and Cleis. Rhonda diligently documented the journey together in her voluminous journals and has drawn on these to write a novel packed with detail, hope, and sometimes despair. Her attention to detail is remarkable and gives the book a sense of authenticity and pathos. But shining through the pages of this work is the special relationship between mother and daughter and is living proof that love can and does triumph in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

 

The reader is gently, but sometimes brutally, guided through Cleis's progress from a fun-loving teenager to a serious assault victim, to her confrontation with her death, her awakening, rehabilitation and eventual, happy fulfilled life, in spite of an acquired brain injury. And by her side throughout is Rhonda ... the devoted mother who always believed that her daughter would recover and reach  her full potential as a woman, complete in every way.

 

But her mother's love was not the only gift Rhonda's angels gave Cleis as she travelled the hard road. With characteristic humility, Rhonda describes and acknowledges the support the family received from extended family and her professional colleagues. There is a very old saying: it takes a whole village to raise a child - and in many respects, the beaten and broken Cleis needed that village in order to be raised from death to life and happiness.

 

Beaten and Broken: A Story of Survival is the remarkable story of the courage of two women as they embark upon an amazing journey. It will amaze and challenge readers to explore their own twists and turns of life and will undoubtedly for many raise the question "How would I cope if this happened to my daughter?"

 

It is the challenge faced by all parents, but doubly so by single parents like Rhonda. How do we keep our children safe, ensure their happiness, support them to reach their full potential and live productive fulfilling lives? We all want these seemingly simple goals for our children and Rhonda Norbury is no different.

 

The story of how she makes this happen for her daughter in the face of seemingly impossible odds makes for compelling reading.

 

Cleis Barret Norbury's assailant remains at large, in spite of intensive publicity and police investigations. Perhaps this heartfelt account of the struggle the Norburys faced and conquered will rekindle a memory that just might lead to an arrest and restore the innocence the beautiful city of Cairns had before Cleis was so brutally beaten and broken.