We had returned to Adelaide after an eventful year away. My husband had worked at the Mt. Newman mines and was a skilled auto electrician. He found a job (of sorts) down on the Port Road and was kicking his heels for most of his working day with no jobs coming in and the boss standing talking to him about Mount Newman mines. Not that he knew anything about the place.
My husband was fed up and wanted to find another, better paid position, but there weren't a lot of jobs around and he at least was employed.
That night I prayed. I asked God for a good long term job for Noel and with a superannuation scheme thrown in.
The next day was wet, so I was busy for most of it getting jumpers dry and keeping the house warm. From somewhere at 4.30 in the afternoon
I picked up an Advertiser, Adelaide's morning paper and turned to Sits Vac (Situations Vacant). The Highways Department was looking for men with the exact qualifications as Noel's. So when the kids and I met him after work, we told him about the Highways Dept. We wrote out an application there and then and the next morning I took it to the Post Office address from the paper. Noel was all adither, not knowing if he'd been successful, but I KNEW. Needless to say, he was, and spent 15 years in a safe, well paid job until he took a package at the age of 54. Retirement for him was peaceful and contented, travelling familiar roads on fishing trips until his last illness claimed him.
To this day I wonder what our lives would have been like without the safety of that government job.
God was listening the night I prayed for safety and security for my husband our boys and me.