By EMMA SUN
IN A decade where sex before marriage was taboo, a young teenager was pregnant, scared and alone.
That teenager is Mount Evelyn’s Helen Marsh, now a proud 70-year-old great-grandmother and born-again Christian.
And the Evelyn Ridge resident has put her story to paper, releasing her autobiography Up out of Egypt to inspire people about dealing with tough situations.
Ms Marsh was a self-proclaimed rebel in her early teenage years, searching for love and happiness when she fell pregnant at 14.
Sent away to a home for unmarried mothers, she was forced to give her baby girl up for adoption.
“That chapter was closed in my life and I was told to get on with life and put it all behind me and start again, which is not exactly what I was feeling like doing,” she said.
“I felt incredibly sad, grieving that I had lost my first born.
“All I wanted to be was a mother, even at 14 I dreamed of getting married and having children and to me that dream was shattered.”
Ms Marsh fell pregnant again at 15 and married at 16, going on to have three children in three years to her husband Walter, who she is married to today.
“I struggled growing up,” she said.
“I was the youngest of my siblings who were much older than me and as a result I felt disconnected from my family.
“My family were very religious, similar to Jehovah’s Witnesses, and very strict in their beliefs.
“I grew up feeling different to my peers and by the time I was 12 I really rebelled against my family’s beliefs.
“I was looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places because I didn’t feel it in my family.”
Almost 30 years after giving her first daughter Jan up for adoption, Ms Marsh was reunited with her.
While it was no easy feat mending the wounds, Ms Marsh said it was worth every bit of effort.
“There were a lot of emotions that we had to work through, my daughter and I and it took many, many years to come through it,” she said.
“I suppose that’s what I hope people will get out of this book that if anything in life is not successful when you expect it to be at the moment, it’s worth working on.
“Jan and I have a lovely relationship now and we have left the pain behind us.”
This year, Ms Marsh celebrates the 25th anniversary of her reunion with Jan, the year she turns 70 and the release of her new book.
She said she is very much enjoying life at the moment.
“Life is fantastic, we’re very happy here.”
To get a copy of Up out of Egypt, visit www.upoutofegypt.com
