Don't Stop Believin'

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Rona had met a talented young singer/entertainer named Ian Turpie and wanted to introduce him to me even though I was only fifteen.

Later, when I went to school in Australia, we had a weekly bank day where we would take money to school and they would put it in the bank for us. I can still hear the sound of the brisk wind in their feathers that brushed so close to my ears as I walked under the gum trees that held their nests. These and other events led to the stage in Olivia’s life where she and her newly divorced mother move to London, a place they know nobody, right in the middle of the “Swinging Sixties,” I was amazed as I read of her mother, living in tiny, cramped apartments and sleeping in cots on the floor as her daughter Olivia and, later Olivia and her friend and former vocal coach Pat were working to establish their fledgling careers in the entertainment business.

In those days, women didn’t fare very well in divorce settlements, and watching my mother struggle financially taught me how strong women rally to take care of themselves and their children. Forty years ago, Olivia Newton-John launched a million dreams — and, later, feminist backlash — when she stepped onto a high-school field in a pair of skintight black pants, puffing a cigarette, her hair tarted up in curls. I have very few memories of that time besides crawling around on a thick blue carpet between my parents’ twin beds in their bedroom. It turned out to be her biggest record, and now her only regret is that she didn’t start a leotard company then. It was the most painful moment of my young life, made worse when my father shook his head with a finality that indicated my living conditions had already been settled.

Since surviving breast cancer in 1992 she has been an advocate for health awareness, becoming involved with various charities, health products and fundraising efforts. After her own personal journeys with cancer, she became an inspiration for millions around the world. This could've been because of very sore muscles since I hadn't played in months, but I had trouble even standing and wobbled when I forced myself upright. In addition to her music and screen successes, Olivia is perhaps best known for her strength, courage and grace. Professionally, it was the chance of a lifetime for my father, and personally, it was an opportunity for my parents to create a new chapter in their life together.I knew that she starred in Grease and also represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974.

And of course, I thought there might be the stories, painful and joyful, of the loves of this woman’s life, and they were there in all their variety as she encountered love at the various stages of her life.Brian had a folk singer in his restaurant on the weekend, Hans Gorg, and I was allowed to go watch him perform, with Rona keeping a close eye on me. He knew she’d be reluctant to act in another film, because he already knew her resume inside and out. My German grandfather was the first person to sign an antinuclear proliferation treaty because he was strongly opposed to war.