Mary Tennant Mary Tennant i(9568365 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

'Mary Tennant is a retired registered nurse. She completed her general training at the Princess Alexandra Hospital,midwifery at the Mater Mother’s in Brisbane and Community Child Health certificate at Curtin University Perth. Later she obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing) and a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine and worked at the Telathon Institute for Child Research. Mary has worked in hospitals in Brisbane and Perth but the majority of her career has been in Aboriginal Health. ' (Publication summary)

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon I Knew You'd Have Brown Eyes Warriewood : Finch , 2016 9568382 2016 single work autobiography

'A conservative Catholic family in Queensland in 1974 is no place to be a pregnant teenager. With an authoritarian mother and facing enormous societal pressures, Mary must make a decision to save her future … but it is one that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

'After putting her baby son up for adoption, Mary tries to return to her old life and her studies to be a nurse but finds that she cannot escape thoughts of her son or feelings of guilt. The situation is made worse because her mother and family completely ignore what has happened to her; she cannot talk to anyone about how she feels. Even after travelling throughout remote Australia as a nurse and health advisor, and marrying and having two daughters, she feels incomplete and restless.

'Then the adoption laws regarding contact between birth mothers and their children are changed. She decides that the time might be right to find out if her son wants to meet her. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems and the quest to become a part of her son’s life, turns Mary’s life and world upside down all over again. ' (Publication summary)
2016 winner Finch Memoir Prize
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Last amended 20 May 2016 09:23:15
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