I ran away from my family… and found myself
Monique van Tulder, 57, Sydney, NSW.
Pulling into the garage, I turned to look at the bags of groceries.
Yet another job that’s up to me, I groaned, hauling them inside.
As the family’s ‘Chief Domestic Officer’, I held everything together. From making sure my husband Michael, 59, had what he needed to thrive in his finance job, to juggling the routines of our young adult sons, I did it all – the cooking, the laundry, plus caring for my ageing in-laws.
And at 54, I was battling menopause. I’m burning out, I realised. I need a radical change.
Decades ago, we’d been lucky enough to buy a small holiday home in the Whitsundays.
So, to get away, I flew up…
