Perth, Western Australia (Old Edition) Home Write a Letter Time Out Special Coverage Crime & Justice Classifieds Search Real Estate Trades & Services Submit About Contact Us Advertising Legal	Beryl's had so many lives you wouldn't read about it Beryl Grant and her biographer, Ian Tanner, stroll in Daglish. Any one of the many lives of Beryl Grant would be enough for most people: nurse, administrator, educator, Churchill fellow, magistrate, Uniting Church moderator, and expert on prostitution. These days, she describes herself simply as "a pensioner living happily in Daglish". Despite her modesty, she is also the subject of a new book, Beryl's World, by Ian Tanner. Her friend, Sir Ronald Wilson, former High Court judge and Uniting Church leader, says: "It is the story of a woman of humble beginnings, whose gifts of faith, energy, wisdom, generosity and humour have enriched the lives of countless Australians." It's amazing praise for a girl who left school at 14 when she became an orphan. The book is an interesting blend of the author's work with Beryl's personal recollections. She is deeply Christian, but worldly and certainly not a wowser - or even a teetotaller. In the book, and in life, she deals honestly and openly with subjects that make many people uncomfortable. At Ngala she was director of nursing for 20 years and cared for over 1200 expectant mothers and 7000 children, and trained over 350 mothercraft nurses. She recalls: "These were the days before sophisticated contraceptive devices and the contraceptive pill; and it was also a time when society resisted allowing young women to keep their babies and was very harsh on those who defied convention and took their babies to live with them. "I shared a great deal of sorrowing with many of these new single mothers and tried to help them through the grieving process with care and understanding." Beryl has always insisted on being as informal and natural as possible, despite some resistance. Working on an inquiry into prostitution in the 1980s, many of the workers involved were hesitant to step forward; Beryl let it be known that she would be in a particular coffee shop in Northbridge on a particular day if anybody wanted to talk to her. She had many conversations that way and found some real answers to her questions about why women would take such work. As a lay magistrate she discovered teenagers were being charged with "using obscene language in front of a woman". She said to a sergeant: "Please don't waste the court's time on this. Have you read the school English books lately? They're full of these words." Beryl says that for all her world travels, she has always felt home was Subiaco, where she spent her early childhood and early nursing years. "It's comfortable and close to so much that is interesting," she said. The book is available from the Uniting Church at the Wesley Centre, Perth and the Warehouse Café, Onslow Road, Shenton Park. Profits from sales will go to Frontier Services, the successor to John Flynn's Australian Inland Mission. -George Williams BACK TO TOP < PREVIOUS - HOME - NEXT> Copyright © 1999 - 2006 Post Newspapers Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.