Lauretta and Kingsley Forester are pictured at their Bundaberg home.
Lucky coincidence has brought an elderly Bundaberg woman back decades later to live in social housing on the site of her childhood family home.
Lauretta Meninga grew up in a large house in Gibson Street, Avenell Heights, the long-term home of the South Sea Islander Meninga family.
She married Kingsley Forester, a professional moulder and cane cutter and they had four children. When her mother died, the family moved into the large home with the extended family.
Flash forward some 20 years. Worsening health meant Kingsley could not work, and Lauretta became his primary carer.
Maintaining the Gibson Street home became too hard, and the now-struggling family approached the Department of Communities for assistance. In April 1997 they moved into a three-bedroom publicly-owned home in Keys Street.
Two years later, the original Meninga family home, now showing its age, was removed from the site, and the department bought the land from another family member.
The Foresters’ story moves forward to early 2010. The now-elderly couple learn that the department has built four two-bedroom fully-adaptable units on the site in Gibson Street, using funds provided by the Australian Government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan.
One unit has become Kingsley and Lauretta Forester’s home.
Loretta says “It’s just so nice to come back here. Our home is on exactly the same spot as my family home. It’s like I never left. The whole Meninga family thinks the new development is wonderful — although it’s a lot quieter now with just the two of us.
“This land means so much to the Meninga family — even former Kangaroo captain and Queensland State of Origin coach Mal spent time here in his youth.
“It’s just wonderful to be reunited again after all these years and it brings back so many childhood memories. We’re all so delighted.”
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