Motherhood, the way I imagine it, often comes bathed in an afterglow.A mother holds her baby for the first time, a father close by to share in the joy and relief. They take their newborn home, where a nursery has been lovingly and carefully prepared to cradle their bundle of joy in cosy comfort. Ms Sabrina Chong Abdullah didn't have any of that after giving birth to two of her six children, as she was serving prison terms at the time.Instead of loved ones waiting outside, she had prison officers supervising her labour. Instead of returning to the warmth of home to bond with her infant, she returned to a bare prison cell.
It's a grim reality, and one I found difficult to reconcile with the upbeat, energetic 49-year-old sitting across from me in her office. She never seemed to run out of quips and laughs.Once we settled into our chairs, my colleague asked her to clap once for an audio test. She clapped as requested and then deadpanned: "Got mosquito."Even as she dredged up the sordid details of her past as an ex-drug offender who cycled in and out of prison several times, she was able to puncture the sombre weight of our conversation with jokes.Today, Ms Sabrina is a mother of six who has been sober for 14 years.She has spent the last year working with Yellow Ribbon Cares (formerly ISCOS and NeuGen Fund), a charity registered as an Institution of a Public Character that helps ex-offenders and their families rebuild their lives.It seems like a perfect turnaround tale, but in truth, it has taken years for Ms Sabrina to achieve the stability she has now – or to even conceive of it as a possibility."My younger self would never have imagined that I'd one day have a stable roof over my head, children I love coming home to every day and a meaningful job that gives me purpose," she said.
