A GYMPIE grandmother who’s saved the lives of countless abandoned Chinese babies is the subject of a recent book by an ABC journalist – and her story starts in Inverell.
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China Baby Love tells the tale of Linda McCarthy Shum, whose “cold” and “unwanted” childhood in the town later motivated her work with orphans and foster children in China.
Mrs Shum says that, despite her family life, the charms of Inverell were a bright spot in her first 12 years and she hopes to return for a book event.
The book is by ABC journalist Jane Hutcheon, who spent four years shadowing Mrs Shum.
Her humanitarian work began with “a tentative visit to an orphanage in a small Chinese city”.
Since then, Mrs Shum has spent 20 years establishing and maintaining foster homes and a special-needs school, through her organisation Chinese Orphans Assistance Team.
Mrs Shum said the author’s research had led her to Inverell.
“She was curious to know, why would somebody like me – just an ordinary wife, mother and schoolteacher – want to go off and save orphans?” Mrs Shum said.
“She’s looked at it from my childhood, in particular the rejection from my mother, and that perhaps I wanted those children to have what I didn’t from my mother.”
Mrs Shum’s parents were Molly O’Brien and Charles McCarthy, and the family lived in Howard St above the suspension bridge.
Mrs Shum said her childhood had been marred by her mother and grandmother “always feuding” because Molly had fallen pregnant with her at 17, among other reasons, and her mother’s “perpetual post-natal depression”.
However, she remembered many happy times with her friends and cousins playing along and swimming in the Macintyre River, and running and cycling up and down the goat track behind the weir.
“I love going back to Inverell: I have a lot of really good memories there.”
Mrs Shum has been in talks with the Dust Jacket about a book launch/fundraising event.