JUNE Barnes-Rowley discovered a secret her late mother Myrtle had kept from the family.
When Ms Barnes-Rowley was about seven or eight years of age, she snuck into her mother’s wardrobe while she was out, and found something she knew nothing about.
So, she wrote a book in 2007 about the discovery, Whisper My Secret: A Memoir, to tell the world about her mother’s confusing secret.
“I found an old silver cash tin and a key, and in there I found three birth certificates and the names were not mine or my six brothers’ names,” Ms Barnes-Rowley told The Guardian.
“Two boys and one girl. I couldn’t work it out.”
She later discovered they were actually their half siblings.
“I had to put the things back quickly because I heard the squeak of the gate and my mother was coming back,” Ms Barnes-Rowley said.
“But, I always wondered.”
Myrtle gave her an extraordinary story to share, after Ms Barnes-Rowley said she would write a bestselling book.
When Myrtle died, she left the silver box opened with additional documents inside.
“I did remember it (the conversation) and figured that was the permission she gave me to tell that story,” she said.
“It was intriguing the way it came about, so I had to write about the secret.”
Ms Barnes-Rowley said this part of her life had occurred during World War Two “so a bit of social history as well because it happened to other women”.
In her writing, she is inspired by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie.
“I like that traditional whodunit? The classic murder mystery, where it’s more of an escapism,” Ms Barnes-Rowley said.
“I like to escape to a world where everything’s okay in the end, but before you get to the end, there’s a lot of excitement and adventures.”
The Melbourne-based author has previously visited Swan Hill as a storyteller for incursions at kindergartens.
“I loved coming to Swan Hill, but had to stop the storytelling because I was teaching and writing stories and I had to give something up,” she said.
Ms Barnes-Rowley said always felt welcomed in the region, noting the people as the highlight for a return.
“I always felt very welcome and I never felt uncomfortable about sitting in a cafe on my own,” she said.
“It was a community I was visiting rather than a place that didn’t want me.
“The kinder teachers were so beautiful and welcome, and I love the op shops as well.”
Writing since a teenager, Ms Barnes-Rowley’s work has been published in magazines, including New Idea.
“I took it up seriously again in 2007 and that was mostly because I was compelled to write my mother’s story after she died,” she said.
“That went off to a small publisher in Queensland, then to Amazon.”
Born in Orbost, Ms Barnes-Rowley moved to Melbourne in her late teenage years, living there ever since, except for a short stint in Sydney.
“I still go back to Orbost,” she said.
“Maybe I’m a country girl at heart and maybe that’s why I also enjoy coming to Swan Hill.”
Ms Barnes-Rowley will share her story at the Swan Hill Regional Library on Wednesday at 7pm.
The event is free and a light supper will be provided.
