Lynne spends much of her time juggling voluntary work in a Salvation Army store with caring for her two grandchildren.

While both have low to moderate support needs, they still need quite a lot of extra love, care and attention which can’t always be provided by their parents.

The children’s parents separated when they were still youngsters. Their mother moved interstate, only visiting the children once or twice a year. She did not want to have custody of the children.

Their father Tom, Liz’s son, works as a builder fulltime and finds it impossible to care for the children by himself.

“Tom is a good dad, but his time is very limited,” Lynne said. “He leaves home at 7am and is often not home until 6pm. Because building work has slowed right down, he often has to travel long distances to take whatever work he can and then he doesn’t get home until the weekends.

“I live about three hours away, in the country on a rural property, and I will often drive to the city and stay at Tom’s place and look after the children when he is working.

“I don’t like leaving my own home and my husband, but there isn’t much choice. My husband hates cities and really has no desire to stay up there. There are also animals to feed at home and the garden to tend as well as no shortage of jobs around the farm.

“But if I didn’t go and help Tom, he could not keep the children. Unfortunately she has a drug dependency problem and is not very interested in her kids.

“Tom does what he can, but he still has to pay the mortgage and all the bills. He has no option other than working, as being welfare dependent is no life for anyone, and not something he wants to do to his family.

“It is lucky in a way that I have the flexibility to help out as there are many occasions when the school phones me because one or the other of the kids is in difficulty, and I have to go over there and bring them home or help sort out whatever the problem is.

“I also help with the washing and the cooking and the homework and the doctor’s appointments. All of that stuff.  There is no way Tom could manage without me, really.

“Both kids go to speech therapy lessons and have an occupational therapist, so I am always taking them to various appointments. They have language and learning delays and it takes them a long time to learn things.

“At school, they often have difficulty fitting in and making friends. Both kids have swapped schools many, many times, trying to find an environment where they feel welcome and accepted.

“At one stage, I brought them home with me for six months, thinking a little country school might be a better, more accepting environment.

“Sadly, it didn’t work out as there were so few resources available.”

Liz said she loved her work at the local Salvation Army store and would love to be more reliable and do more hours “but the kids always come first”.

“My work brings me into contact with so many interesting people and I feel like I am really contributing to society. It is fun and there is no pressure. In a way, when I go to work, it feels like a holiday compared to the hard yakka I do looking after Tom and the kids.

“I don’t really think of myself as a carer, though. I am just a grandma doing what grandmas do!”