By Dan Hagen
One night in Australia in 1909, with rain swelling a nearby
creek, 10-year-old Helen Goff’s widowed mother told the girl to take care of
her two younger siblings. Mother was going to drown herself, she explained. And
she walked out into the storm.
Terrified, Helen gathered the children on the rug in front
of the fire and made up a story about a magical flying horse — a perfect symbol
of escape — to distract them. Unsuccessful in her suicide attempt, Helen’s
mother returned later, but her daughter never trusted her again.
Helen grew up
to wear trousers, have an affair with an older man and a long-term relationship
with a woman, and become an author.
She changed her name to P.L. Travers and wrote famous
stories about a no-nonsense, supernatural protector of children whose parents had
failed them.
Naturally.
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