Meet your vendor.
I was born in Crown Street Women’s Hospital in Sydney, and brought up around Schofields way. After school, I worked as a nanny for my neighbours’ kids for about a year or more. After that, I went to work in Speedo on women’s swimwear, out in Windsor. I was on the sewing machine – I can only do hems. I was there for five years. I’ve worked as a kitchen hand, worked in a chicken factory – I didn’t like that – and I also worked at a lighthouse in Wollongong, that was voluntary. You have to go up and monitor all the boats and ships and fishing crews, and tell them what the weather is going to be. I liked doing that.
I’ve also volunteered at op shops and soup kitchens, cooking. I’m helping out up at St Andrew’s Town Hall, and giving them all these ideas about food, like summer pancakes. And I serve tea and coffee.
I’m Maltese background. When I was 15, I went there with my mother for three years. I didn’t like it. There was no bathroom or toilet. There was nothing to do in those days – it’s different now.
I’ve been selling The Big Issue since 2019. It has to do with friendship and mixing for me. It keeps me happy and keeps me occupied, because I have a hard life. I was on the streets for 18 months in 2017. It wasn’t good because I had to flee domestic violence.
Housing was not very cooperative. If you’ve got money, they don’t help you. To keep a roof over my head, I stayed in hotels, until I didn’t have any savings left – and then they decided, “okay, we’ll help you”. They put me in temporary accommodation. It was an absolute nightmare. It’s still a nightmare, it’s not a happy place. Dangerous. But what can I do? I just get up and go. I have to be tough, I have to be strong, to get me through where I am now, today.
Another vendor, Charles, introduced me to The Big Issue in the first place. I knew Charles from the Sydney Street Choir. I like being on stage, singing in concerts. In high school, I was in Pied Piper or something. I was the understudy. I auditioned to get into Nunsense, when I lived in Tasmania. They dressed me up as a nun. I like being an actor also: I did drama classes at Wayside Chapel, and wrote my own play: Who Ate All the Turkeys Before Christmas Day.
I like doing sports: basketball, tenpin bowling, carpet bowls, lawn bowls, running, jumping, discus. I was the Special Olympics Australia all-state champion in bocce in 2006. I got selected for the Tasmanian team. I beat New South Wales; I wasn’t going home without a gold medal.
I do a lot of craft stuff; I’ve won at the shows. I’m creative – I don’t like to follow patterns. I’ve crocheted blankets, shawls, dolls’ dresses. I got first prize in a lot of things. I beat the old ladies the first time I entered.
I’m saving up to go on a Disney cruise, so I can hang out with Mickey Mouse. I like all cartoon stuff. I never grew up – I’m four foot nothing. And I like mucking around with people, and acting the goat. I’m a people magnet. I like talking to people.
Mary sells The Big Issue on the corner of Pitt and Bathurst Sts, Sydney.
Interview by Amy Hetherington
Photo by Brent Lewin
Published in ed#749