A Brisbane family opens home and hearts to the girls of a late friend

WHEN a friend died leaving two orphaned girls, Libby and Peter Turnbull didn't think twice before opening their home and turning their family in to a happy house of seven.

Libby and Peter Turnbull with, from left, Kate and Ella Scotford and Amelia, Josie and Francesca Turnbull.

AN honour. A joy. A blessing. That is how Libby Turnbull describes taking in the two daughters of a late friend, blending them into her own bustling family of three young girls and raising them as her own.

Mrs Turnbull, 40, took in Ella, 11, and Kate, 9, last September, two weeks after the girls had lost their British-born mother, Linda Scotford, to cancer. Their mother's death at 49 left them orphaned, as father Glenn Scotford had died of a heart attack in 2006 aged only 43.

Mrs Turnbull got to know the family about six years ago when Ella and her eldest daughter, Josephine, 11, became friends in Year 1. Knowing Mrs Scotford was a sole parent with cancer and with no direct family in Australia, she and husband Peter decided to make an incredible gesture and offer to take them in to live with their girls, Josephine, and twins Amelia and Francesca, 7.

"We invited Linda over for lunch about a year before she passed away," Mrs Turnbull said. "We just wanted her to know we were going to be there for her and the girls and made clear our genuine love for her and the girls. We said it would be a great honour to be able to raise the girls how she and Glenn would have wanted them to."

When Mrs Scotford died last September, the Turnbulls' response was automatic and selfless.

"It really wasn't a big thing. It was a feeling that we had already sensed that we could and would do this if anything eventuated. Peter and I both had the same belief, concern and love for the girls," Mrs Turnbull said.

The Turnbulls' selfless act has earned them a nomination for a Care and Compassion Medal in the 2013 Pride of Australia awards.

Mrs Turnbull, from Alderley in Brisbane's north, was humbled by the nomination, playing down their gesture as a natural, human response. Having previously been foster parents, Mrs Turnbull said their care of Ella and Kate paled against the work of foster care families.

"There are a lot of carers out there who do far more amazing things than we have done."

The mother-to-five maintained there was mutual benefit in the new lives the Turnbulls had forged.

"This was something we could do that would benefit not only the girls, but also our own family, teaching our own kids to be compassionate and caring and loving. After all, they are the most important things in life."

Today is your last chance to nominate your unsung hero for a Pride of Australia Medal. To nominate visit www.prideofaustralia.com.au Facebook www.facebook.com/prideofaustraliamedal Twitter #prideofoz

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