Heart of the Nation: Kalgan's Pool 6753

MICHELLE Mogridge says her friends are always telling her she should write a book about her life.

Kalgan's Pool

MICHELLE Mogridge says her friends are always telling her she should write a book about her life.

She's beaming with happiness as she plays with her granddaughter Tiny on an outing to Kalgan's Pool, near her home in the Pilbara town of Newman, in this image from World Vision's new book Vision of Hope. But the 47-year-old hasn't always had reasons to smile.

Born in Moora, north of Perth, she was orphaned before her teens and brought up by older sisters. By 22 she was a single mum. She and her baby, Sheila, travelled around a bit - Perth, Port Hedland, Jigalong - before settling in Newman, where Michelle met her de facto, Steve, at a bridge where they used to drink; she treated him to takeaway chicken and it went from there. They've been together 14 years now.

Her drinking was getting really bad, she admits, until a turning point came in her life one morning five years ago. She was walking to the Centrelink office with her cousin Tania, a mother of 11, to fill in the benefit forms for Tania's youngest baby Markus. Out of the blue, Tania said to her, "Do you want to fill in his forms?" - meaning, do you want to adopt him. "I said, 'You're joking'," Michelle recalls, "and she said, 'No, I'm not. You can have him if you want to'." Michelle did want to, very much; she cried and said, "Thank you." After introducing her new son to Steve, who was then in prison, Michelle was at home preparing the baby a bottle. She had a beer in her hand, as usual. "And I looked at Markus, and I looked at the beer, and I just thought, 'Nah, I don't need this'." That was the end of her drinking, right there. She can't even stand the smell of the stuff now.

"He pulled me out of the gutter," she says of Markus, who's now five. And things got even better with the arrival of grandchildren Waylyn and Tiny. "My three amigos," she calls the little people in her life. She showers them with love, and receives their love in return like a blessing. "Without them I would be nothing," she says. "I'm back in a good life."

Vision of Hope: Mother & Child, with photography by Ken Duncan and friends, $59.95, is out now: go to trans.worldvision.com.au/visionofhope