When Maureen Martin's oldest son, Beau, was selected as an Australian Youth Ambassador to Indonesia in 2002, her family was naturally thrilled. Part way through the orientation for this once in a lifetime opportunity, the trip was postponed due to the aftermath of the Bali bombing.
During the postponement, Beau was tragically killed in a shark attack on Australia's Gold Coast, leaving her family utterly shattered. Trying to adjust to life without him was extremely difficult, but before the family had recovered from the shock and grief of his passing, tragedy struck again. Maureen's husband was involved in a horse riding accident that left him left him with a brain injury.
Following these two traumatic events, the family sustained a relentless bombardment of deeply personal and painful losses in quick succession, leaving the family reeling.
Feeling depleted and despairing, so trapped in a life that turned out vastly different to how she imagined it to be, Maureen slowly fought her way out of the cycle of grief and depression As a mature aged student, she entered into tertiary Social Science studies, graduating with a major in Counselling.
The qualification not only helped her heal, but opened doors to work with parents in distress, to facilitate groups in the men and women's prisons and to run support groups for young Aboriginal women.
Her love of the outdoors had her regularly lacing on her hiking boots to go trekking which became surprisingly vital to the road to recovery. In A Trek of Faith, Maureen shares how the bedrock of her faith enabled her to face the challenges and will encourage you that no matter what life throws at you, there can be a surprising future up ahead.
