Just Now
by
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For whatever reason we were almost fleeing this place, this city of Sydney with the most beautiful harbour in the world, the giant steel bridge spanning the deep body of water, joining two sections of land, dividing north from east, Pacific Ocean always there - sometimes a deep petrol-blue, sometimes a dull, opaque slate grey, sometimes splattered with white choppy waves. Always reflecting the mood and weather of the southern skies, no longer protected by the ozone layer, the most dangerous of skies. Light so intense and strong that I could never travel in the day-time without wearing dark glasses. Farewelling the city with the nun-like head-dressed buildings nestling in a steady floating mass upon the ocean, along the shore of that exquisite bay. The buildings of the famed Sydney Opera House were meant to look like the masts of Tall Ships, but something went awry and they never managed to look like more than broken sea-shells or shattered glass left strewn after a New-Year’s Eve Celebration. Nevertheless the buildings became International Heritage. Those famous gleaming domes had actually become quite familiar to me and mine, not only from the outside or as members of an audience, but many times some of us had played music on that stage of the enormous concert-hall, never able to fill the cavernous interior with sound, always waiting for the music to travel back to our expectant ears. How familiar the bowels of this famous Opera House had become to our family. We came to know the ins and outs of it, the ups and downs, the old, padded lifts, the abominable ‘Green Room’ with its stained upholstered lounges and stale stink of old frying oil and ubiquitous hamburgers, chips and bacon. We always entered the Opera House via the Backstage, laughing with the in-house staff, enjoying their gay, upfront humour, getting to know them all, to spar with them verbally and listen to their tales of pains and sorrows as they did ours. The El-Al flight was an hour early. We disembarked quickly, excited and afraid at the same time. We had not seen my brothers for over nine years. The airport staff was incredibly friendly and helpful ensuring that I as a Person with a Disability should be treated with the utmost respect, ease and expediency. What a difference from the experiences which we had recently had in Throughout that day at my parents’ home, various members of the family of whom we had only heard and seen in photographs and their new babies came to visit us. It was a loving, warm, bewildering time. It lasted for no more than a week or so.
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About the Book
Just Now is an autobiography which moves back and forth in time and place, chronicling moments which stand out in the author’s memory.
The themes of Disability, Jewish Life, Injustices and the Law will provoke shock or empathy. The author provides a unique and candid glimpse of human interaction in the latter part of the Twentieth Century.
Full of poetry and lyrical commentaries, interspersed with letters and diary entries the book contains sharp edges of humour, sometimes cynicism and sometimes controversy, bordering on the absurd.
Just Now is an unforgettable memoir which echoes through the writer’s life and you, the reader, will feel impelled to read more of the author’s story. .. Just Now. ..
About the Author
Rosanne Goldman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1948. At 23 months she contracted poliomyelitis which left her a paraplegic. Her talent for writing was recognised at an early age. While studying for her B.Mus. Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, she attained her ATCL in the Performance of Speech and Drama, as well as completing one year of Medicine. Rosanne is a clarinettist, singer, English teacher and Music Therapist.
Whilst teaching Music and English she completed her Higher Education Diploma.
Growing up in a strong Jewish and Zionist background, Rosanne ‘made Aliyah’ to Israel in 1974. There she met and married David. They have three talented daughters who have become musicians.
In 1987 the family migrated to Australia, David’s country of birth. They returned to Israel in 1996.
Rosanne now lives with David and their three daughters in Bedfordshire, U.K.