Ryll Paul

Available in: paperback and ebook

Pebbles in the Road takes you inside the extraordinary experiences of joy, sorrow, strength, hope and survival in one woman’s life. This story will wrench at the heart.

From a difficult childhood through the 50s and 60s to abusive and neglectful relationships, motherhood, and the love and loss of a son ... these are the happenings that have shaped a life.

Readers will be able to relate to what it was like growing up in a time when children could be children and those too young to know will enjoy the anecdotes of an era filled with things we take for granted now.

This story is about finding strength in the face of the greatest adversity and the courage to make choices. During challenging times in our life, ultimately we are responsible for our own well-being and happiness.

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When doctors told me I should leave my baby at the hospital to die, I had to draw upon all the experiences of my life—good and bad—to prove them wrong.

I was raised in the Brisbane suburb of Salisbury during the 1950s and although my parents were loving, I experienced emotional and physical abuse from those closest to me. It has taken me many years to realise that’s what it was—at the time I thought my experiences were normal.

As I grew older, I attracted men into my life who continued this pattern of neglect, abuse and mistreatment. When my firstborn son, Gavin, was diagnosed with a fatal heart condition, I had to rely on myself for our survival.

Within the environment of neglectful relationships, I struggled to be a good parent to Gavin and my other children. I lived in near-constant fear that Gavin’s next hospital visit would be his last.

Pebbles is about growing up, finding the strength within you to face life’s trials, a mother’s love and the courage of a young boy whose heart, though fatally flawed, was the gentlest, most loving heart I’ve ever known.