{"id":86846,"date":"2014-11-04T10:28:52","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T00:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=86846"},"modified":"2020-11-23T12:39:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T02:39:34","slug":"lifes-now-sweet-for-lolly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/11\/04\/lifes-now-sweet-for-lolly\/","title":{"rendered":"Life’s Now Sweet For Lolly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Love for Cherbourg and its people … Lolly West will always call Cherbourg home (Photo: Marcus Priaulx)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

November 4, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Marcus Priaulx<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Cherbourg resident Lolly West’s bittersweet story shows why education is so important for a happier future.<\/p>\n

She wants people to learn from her story and realise a good education is the key to having a calm, peaceful life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt opens doors to a lot of opportunities,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cInstead of waiting for that silver platter you need to grab every opportunity that comes your way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lolly, 50, is now three years into part-time study for a law degree but she has overcome huge hardships to get to this point.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lolly’s grandmother, Janey Hart, was a strong Christian woman who raised her in a strict but gentle manner and would host anywhere up to 20 children at a time within her home.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cShe never smacked any one of us,\u201d Lolly said, \u201cbut we did as we were told.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lolly said this was because her grandmother led by example and every child respected her.<\/p>\n

However, things started to go pear-shaped for Lolly when she naively entered a destructive relationship at 16.<\/p>\n

After six years she escaped to Brisbane with her four children but her partner found her just before Christmas. He asked to take the youngsters home for the remainder of the holiday season and Lolly agreed.<\/p>\n

When she returned to Cherbourg to bring the children home for school she found Children\u2019s Services had taken custody of them.<\/p>\n

Life then became a long, hard battle for Lolly, who had limited education as she had left school at 14 to help her grandmother pay the bills.<\/p>\n

She found herself confronting a legal system she didn\u2019t understand in an effort to have her children returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t a drug user, I wasn\u2019t an alcoholic, I knew I\u2019d done nothing wrong,\u201d Lolly said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was determined not to let the ignorance of the system take my children away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lolly took on one court battle after another in a constant fight with a system that kept her children with other carers.<\/p>\n

At age 32 she finally got her wish and they were returned to her as \u201clittle teenagers\u201d.<\/p>\n

But life remained a struggle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The children felt Lolly had abandoned them and didn\u2019t love them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey resented me,\u201d Lolly said.<\/p>\n

She felt hurt after all she had done to have them reunited with her and became depressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been fighting the system for so long and still didn\u2019t know or have any knowledge of why they took the children away from me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a good person; a very giving person, very protective of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lolly struggled emotionally but began to find her feet when she became involved with her son\u2019s education and school.<\/p>\n

He was seven years old at the time and was having problems.<\/p>\n

Lolly was often called to the school to sort out problems and, in doing so, learned it needed parents to help in the tuckshop and with children\u2019s reading and writing.<\/p>\n

Lolly volunteered and spent most of her days within classes to keep her mind occupied. Her son\u2019s behaviour settled with her presence and Lolly\u2019s confidence built through her work.<\/p>\n

Staff began to encourage her to become a teacher and Lolly took up the challenge. She studied part-time at the Australian Catholic University in Mitchelton while continuing to volunteer at the school for five years.<\/p>\n

Lolly was happy to do so because of the support it gave to her and her son.<\/p>\n

She earned a Diploma of Education in 2009 and had developed a new-found thirst for learning.<\/p>\n

Lolly enrolled to do a community work certificate and Diploma of Justice at the Indigenous Unit of Kangaroo Point TAFE. She then began to understand the legal jargon she had struggled with while trying to get her children back.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She decided to help people go through the same fight she did and became a court support officer with the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal & Advocacy Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role involved supporting women dealing with domestic violence or child safety in the courts of Brisbane,\u201d Lolly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it very fulfilling.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople could relate to me because they found a genuine person to talk to and knew it would be confidential. My main focus was to educate them on how the legal system worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I really started to find my passion. Years ago I didn\u2019t know anything about it and now I was educating women who didn\u2019t understand the legal system at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI helped them a great deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lolly now has her eyes on getting a law degree.<\/p>\n

However, becoming a lawyer is not her goal. Her aim is to help women understand the law so they can get a just result.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation is power,\u201d Lolly said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a weapon. I was a na\u00efve, shy person but it gave me power to fight some really ignorant people. I\u2019d let them have their say but when you fight them with fire you shut them down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gives me real pleasure. I\u2019m not a victim anymore.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lolly said she has now told her story to show people why they need to send their children to school every day, on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d been better educated I wouldn\u2019t have had the troubles I\u2019ve had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d had a better education as a young girl then I wouldn\u2019t have been so na\u00efve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I get a law degree I want to come back to Cherbourg State School and show the kids because Cherbourg will always be my home, even if I live in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to show them how far I\u2019ve come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Cherbourg resident Lolly West’s bittersweet story shows why education is so important for a happier future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":86848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[1135],"yoast_head":"\nLife's Now Sweet For Lolly - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/11\/04\/lifes-now-sweet-for-lolly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life's Now Sweet For Lolly - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Cherbourg resident Lolly West's bittersweet story shows why education is so important for a happier future.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/11\/04\/lifes-now-sweet-for-lolly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-04T00:28:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-23T02:39:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/20141104lolly.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dafyd Martindale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dafyd Martindale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/11\/04\/lifes-now-sweet-for-lolly\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/11\/04\/lifes-now-sweet-for-lolly\/\",\"name\":\"Life's Now Sweet For Lolly - 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