“I know what it means to struggle ”
Julie Goodwin knows what struggle is. She has lived it, breathed it and walked side by side with it more than once during her life. Among the clearest and most poignant of her childhood recollections is an indelible memory of a time when her mother, Marlene, battled to put food on the table each night.
“When I was little, Mum was on her own for a time while we were growing up,” recalls Julie, one of Australia’s most recognised and popular cooks. “She endured a lot of struggles. I clearly remember one Christmas when we were living in a flat in Normanhurst on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, and there was a knock at the door. Mum opened it and there was someone from the St Vincent de Paul Society holding a big Christmas hamper in their arms. Mum never knew how she came to their attention or who told them where we lived, or even how they knew we needed a hamper. Later, she told me it was a great relief because we had something to put on the table on Christmas Day, but she also told me that at the same time it was a huge humiliation, receiving charity. That had a stigma to it, but the truth is
