A trip to the asylum

The mystery relative turns out to be Sharon, her father's sister. She decides to fly to Australia to meet her newly-discovered niece. Sharon tells us how her family was extremely poor and her mother, Thelma had all her children taken from her. Gordon, Sarah's dad, was one of those kids.

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"He liked the hospital. But he didn't like the shock therapy. ... He said the name of the doctor. He liked doing it." - Sharon

The mystery relative turns out to be Sharon, Sarah's aunt and her father's sister.

She decides to come to New Zealand from Australia and meet her newly-discovered niece. Sarah is nervous, and keen to find out more of her father's backstory.

Sharon tells us how her family was extremely poor and her mother, Thelma, had all her children taken from her. Gordon, Sarah's dad, was one of those kids. He ended up in foster care, and, aged 18, tried to kill himself.

He was left brain-damaged and that's how he ended up in Porirua. Sarah and Sharon meet for the first time, and take a tour of Porirua psychiatric hospital, which is both eye-opening and disturbing.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details