Inside Out

I bought a $7.50 standing room ticket to a book launch last night.

The book, ‘Inside Out’, was written by my high school friends Tracy Chapman and Kathleen Folbigg.

I meant to buy a sit-down seat, but I got distracted and they all sold out.

When I got to the event, I wasn’t allowed into the room. The man on the door said I had to wait until everyone who’d bought seats had arrived.

I started to feel a bit forlorn as I gazed through the window, watched my friends hug people inside the room.

A couple of people were ushered in because they were on the VIP list. I sidled up to the guy on the door and said there was a chance that I was on the VIP list, could he check.

But I didn’t want to make a fuss. I hate making a fuss.

He was distracted and said I’d still have to wait because I’d only bought a standing room ticket. So I politely stepped back until he finally let me in.

Kathy and Tracy hugged me and seated me in the front row, which was so lovely of them.

The man on the door was a little mortified when he realised.

Ah, whatevs. No biggie. These things happen. Besides, it wasn’t my night, it was my friends’ big moment in the spotlight.

As publisher Penguin writes on its website: “Twenty years in jail: Kathleen Folbigg’s extraordinary story of wrongful conviction, and how science, advocacy and friendship freed her.

“In 2003 Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of killing her four babies. Her trial relied on her husband’s accusations and diary entries expressing her guilt over her children’s deaths. She was sentenced to forty years in prison.

“In Inside Out Kathleen takes us back to her traumatic childhood, her difficult marriage, her dream of nurturing a family, and the profound souring of that dream into a nightmare.

“This is also , however, a story of unwavering friendship and resilience. Tracy Chapman and Kathleen were close at school. After Kathleen was jailed, Tracy renewed contact and, convinced her friend could never have committed such crimes, began advocating for her with extraordinary tenacity. She never doubted Kathleen’s innocence, relentlessly petitioning for new evidence to be examined, and for a new approach to be taken as doubts about the safety of the conviction grew among scientists and the legal community.

“Ultimately, these two women together faced down a misogynistic justice system and forged a friendship that supported Kathleen as she endured the trauma of the prison system. And finally, after many devastating setbacks, came the leaps forward needed to overturn one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Australia’s history: in 2023 Kathleen was released, pardoned and exonerated.

“For the first time, in Inside Out Kathleen lays bare her time in prison, her life before she was wrongfully accused, and her hopes for the future; while Tracy describes with passion and insight the fight she took up to help to free her friend, and shares her hopes that their story will prevent other women from suffering as Kath did over those long twenty years.”

I am dazzled, awed and humbled by Tracy’s unwavering fight for justice.

And Kathy’s resilience in the face of unimaginable trauma is remarkable.

Congratulations to them both on the launch of their book.

I got a few mentions from Tracy during their “Kathleen Folbigg & Tracy Chapman in conversation with Quentin McDermott” appearance at Gleebooks, and even a little round of applause at one point, spurred on by Tracy’s praise.

But the applause felt a bit like the roar of the crowd when I clutched a dyke on a bike as she cruised down Oxford Street during Mardi Gras Parade.

I was part of the parade as a Cosmopolitan journalist, writing a reportage story on the experience – an imposter who didn’t deserve those cheers.

Tracy gave up so many years of her life to fight for Kath. Such an incredible woman. I jlurked around the fringes of her tenacious battle, lending the occasion hand.

I asked one of the staff to take a photo of the three of us after the event. My mouth dropped when I saw the results.

That staffer was a sorceress! We all look fabulous.

I look so youngish AND thinnish!

I have been disheartened lately by how terrible I look in the endless Teams meetings I attend. The photo has given me a sliver of hope that I look a little better in real life.

I also went into a panic at the launch while telling someone about coming straight from the office because I had to be in the city yesterday …

As I said the words I was suddenly aghast. The reason I had to be in the city was a dental appointment that I’d completely forgot about because yesterday was a hot mess of work hell.

I will have to ring the dental clinic today and cravenly apologise and offer to pay for the missed appointment and beg for a new one.

Ohhhhhh the shame!

Song of the day: Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons “Oh what a night”