Julie Goodwin wasn't sure what to make of the text message. It was from her middle child, Tom, asking if she and his dad, Mick, would be in that night - he had something he needed to talk to them about. It felt ominous and her heart instantly sank. Mick was out, she replied, doing her best to keep the mood light. How about the following night?
As soon as Mick walked through the front door that evening, Julie pounced. “I was like, right, let's figure out all the things it could be and set our faces for it,” she recalls. “It could have been anything. Tom and [his partner], Crystal, having a baby was the easy one, everything else we thought of was worse."
Luck, as it happened, was on their side. By the time Tom, 25, arrived the following evening to share the news, Julie was on hand to smother him with hugs and congratulations.
“We were delighted," she says of the magical moment. “A little human coming into the world is a beautiful gift. I have to say I feel too young to be a grandmother but I couldn't love Delilah more. I've loved her since I knew she was existing. And I love Crystal, she's a beautiful mum and I've always thought she was a really good partner for my son.”
The sense her daughter-in-law was a good fit came early, she tells The Weekly today, proudly bouncing her 15-month-old granddaughter on her hip.
In the Goodwin household, dinner around the table is an important institution and one on which Julie insists. The TV is turned off, the music is muted, and the conversation is rowdy. One by one they will all go around the table, sharing their highlights of the day. In recent years that has expanded to include the question “where's your head at?”, added by Julie in the wake of her well-publicized mental health breakdown in January 2020, one which led her to check in to a psychiatric unit.
This story is from the May 2022 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
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This story is from the May 2022 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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