A Compost of Secrets

Family secrets, despite their quiescence, do not die entirely. They merely compost over the decades, becoming part of a soil which produces new consequences for old decisions.Ruth and Todd are a generation apart. She is a pillar of the church and he is on the point of leaving it. One day Ruth, who is 93, invites Todd to a Bequest Society luncheon at the Port Adelaide football club - she has surrendered her driving licence and would welcome both a companion and a ride. At church Todd and Ruth talk about the footy. At the club they talk about their lives and their church. When Ruth reveals how, at age six, she was seriously injured, falling nine metres into the empty hold of the old Windjammer her family lived on, it marks the start of a quest by Ruth and Todd to better understand her family and its secrets. For it was on the day of this accident that Ruth’s father mysteriously disappeared from her life.Friendship cuts through Ruth and Todd’s differences to shed light not only on past secrets but on what is passing in their lives now: her church and his faith.