Brick walls and broken systems: One woman's way through - Maxine Griffith's Story
At the age of 19 in the 1970s, Maxine Griffiths met three-year-old Don. He had been abandoned and placed in an horrific institution. Don's body was twisted with cerebral palsy; he had no words and no hope. And, when Don crept into Maxine's heart, he changed her life.
To save Don from a cruel future in the Royal Derwent Hospital, the old mental asylum where people with disabilities lived, Maxine fought to rescue and foster Don. Sill young and single she took on Tasmania's conservative institutions, and became an advocate and pioneer for the rights of people with disabilities. She never took 'no' for an answer and helped Tasmania step out of its shocking past.
Maxine had a shocking past of her own. Her own experience of family poverty, along with the trauma of family violence and abuse spurred her on to fight injustice to make a difference for others.
Despite an interrupted education and leaving school after year ten, Maxine later became the CEO of various community organisations.
Themes of loss and betrayal were threaded through Maxine's adulthood as she explored her sexuality and relationships. She did not want to be defined or labelled in any way and she didn't want that for Don either.
Maxine saved Don's life and he saved hers.
This deeply moving story is about survival and redemption and what motivates us to save others.
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