Ron Serdiuk, Brisbane

Not long before my father’s final illness, we organised Michelle to interview him about his early life.

Dad was born in 1923 in a village in rural Ukraine.

After he arrived in Australia in the late 1940s, he lived a very typical working-class Australian suburban existence. But we knew little about his childhood and early adulthood amid the chaos of invasion and war and becoming a refugee – and losing his first wife and child.

He didn’t talk about it very much. 

When he started speaking to Michelle though, he opened up and the memories came flooding out. Things I don’t think he’d thought about for decades. Memories both painful and joyous – stories which gave us a better handle on understanding him.

Dad passed away several months after these interviews.

Listening to him relate his tales of a world long since vanished is like holding hands and travelling in time with him. We’re so grateful to have these recordings now he’s gone.

January 2026

HB, North Melbourne

I was gifted a series of interviews with Michelle when my daughter was born. It was an unusual and brilliant gift! My daughter was very premature and the hospital schedule kept me too busy and distracted to properly process my thoughts and feelings in a diary.

Michelle was warm, curious, intelligent and gentle in her approach, and knew just how to draw out my story. I really enjoyed the process, and it was good to have such a keen and sympathetic listener!

The recordings are a treasure to me now. There is so much I would have forgotten and I’m grateful to have such a special and coherent record of my first weeks of motherhood and my daughter’s first weeks of life.

January, 2026