Chapter 11: you will get your first period, and it won't be the only blood you have to deal with that year
Mum Says My Memoir Is A LieShow Notes
"There was red stuff on Rosie's undies this morning, but you don't want to know about secret women's business." Host Rosie Waterland's was thirteen and life was the most stable it had been for a while for Rosie and family.. but this was not the type of conversation you wanted to have happen on the school bus. Her little sister spilt the beans and now everyone knew about it.
This wasn't going to be the only blood related incident that year for Rosie though: an argument between mum Lisa and partner Brian the Homeowner became a bloody one, with an urgent trip to the hospital for Lisa and a call to Rosie to rush home from a friend's place to guard the TV.
How did it get to this point? Was the blood really as bad as Rosie remembered it? And what was with the TV? Rosie and Lisa finally talk through that night for the first time, what happened to the family after that point and the pain that came with the subsequent separation of the family. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from Mum Says My Memoir Is A Lie
The final episode! Host Rosie Waterland's spent a lifetime struggling to understand why she wasn't a cool kid, constantly wondering just what she was missing. From her early days trying to hide her poo pants from her sister's friends, to later days doing drugs and pretending to enjoy sex with boys who were terrible at it, she now confesses that she was always fixated on trying to impress everyone around her.
When you're twenty-seven years old and realise that you have no clue how to post a letter, it's obvious something has gone very wrong somewhere along the line.
If Lisa thought there was ever going to be an episode from Rosie's book 'The Anti-Cool Girl' that was going to make her squirm, this is it. This one is about host Rosie Waterland's more adult escapades: the time she scared a penis back inside itself and the time Rosie went on her first and only Tinder date only for it to turn out very differently to how she thought it would. It's not very often that a mother and her grown daughter get to discuss sex, but here it is for all to listen to in all its glorious detail.
After her time in the mental institution, Rosie had never had a healthier sense of self-worth in her entire life. She was learning how to be her own saviour, how to feel comfortable being single and how to be mentally healthy. And then there was the issue of the weight gain. It began pretty much straight after leaving hospital. The disordered eating and Rosie's attitude towards food started back in drama school, and the cycle of binging and purging and starving had been going on in the entire seven years after that. Before she knew it, Rosie had gained ninety kilos, and that was the perfect excuse to never leave her room again.
Just like when Rosie was little, something about Mum calling her 'darling' calmed her down. After spending almost a month in a mental home, that's exactly what host Rosie Waterland needed. And Lisa understood that. She was the only person in Rosie's life who understood what she was going through. So with Lisa's help, Rosie jumped on a plane to Dubbo and was soon being cared for by Mum with roast chicken and cheesy potato bake. Lisa might not have always been there for Rosie in life; but this week, this one week, she was.