The green suitcase and the secret family

Betty O'Neill's father disappeared when she was a baby. Decades later, inside a tiny apartment in the Polish city of Lublin she opened a green suitcase to find a huge clue to his secret life

Betty O'Neill grew up in country New South Wales with her mum Nora.

Nora worked in hotels in Kyogle and Coffs Harbour, and because she wasn't able to live at the hotels with her mum, Betty was often fostered out to families in the local area.

Nora was what was known in the 1950s as a 'deserted wife'.

Her husband Antoni had disappeared without a trace shortly after Betty was born.

As a girl Betty knew very little about her father.

She finally met him again when she was nineteen, and it was a strange and unsettling experience.

Decades later, Betty became curious about her father's life story.

She began an investigation which took her to Lublin, Poland, a city where she didn't know anyone, to finally uncover the truth.

Further information

The Other Side of Absence is published by Ventura

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