the story continues > mini-doc transcript - laura's story

Mini-doc transcript - Laura's story

• 12 months after completion of the film

Laura: They had to drill holes into my head here and here and they put an enormous iron cage in front of me, here. I wanted to scream, what have you done to my face, what has happened?

Laura cont.: I really believed that my face was so disfigured that I looked like a monster.

Cathy: Laura went into psychiatric care for 3 years, and then moved into a small housing commission flat and became a virtual hermit. They called it Post Traumatic Stress, but for Laura life was meaningless and she wanted nothing to do with the outside world, and time did not heal.

12 months after completion of the film

Laura: One of the reasons why I became a hermit and why I remained a hermit was that when I looked in the mirror, I saw this terrible face looking back at me, and I was quite convinced that everybody else saw it as terrible as I did. So I didn’t want to inflict it on people, I just felt that people would not like to look at that. But since the making of this film, I have got such a different kind of feedback from people. That they seem to see, they almost see a beauty, they see courage, they see some things in me that I don’t see when I look at the mirror.

Laura cont.: I do get out quite a lot more, I get out quite a bit, I go to U3A 3 or 4 times a week, We have classes on Philosophy, History, Shakespeare, great painters. We have a discussion, debating group, and I belong to a creative writers group.

Laura (giving lecture): The most common argument against space exploration is that all that money would be better spent on helping the poor.

Laura cont.: Then there are the exercise groups, we go to the heated pool, and I’m just starting up yoga, and I’ve been playing lifeball which is really a walking basketball. Its great fun and surprisingly tiring.

Laura cont.: I’ve just got an email here which is about the poem that I submitted to this poetry competition, and they’re telling me here that I’m a semi-finalist, and that I have an excellent chance of winning one of the prizes, including the first prize. Also they’re saying they’re going to put out a publication, and they’re going to publish my poem.

Laura (voice over):The woman’s health Centre invited me to lead a march to reclaim the night, and we marched round Lismore and then afterwards we went to the Starcourt Theatre and there was a showing of the film.

Laura: My greatest achievement has been that I have learnt to trust people again. And I am learning and still learning to like, even love, humanity, society, life itself.