From fear to freedom: Lydia’s inspiring transformation

Lydia Thomson has spent most of her life sleeping with one eye open.

Although it rarely protected her, it mostly just prepared her for the terror that was coming.

Today Lydia walks the same streets as you, goes to the same shops, but she still doesn’t really live in your world. Not yet.

And there’s no way you would want to have even visited hers.

Most importantly, though, Lydia is still here. She can hug her children, kiss her grandchildren and sometimes, only sometimes, she can sleep all night.

But those few rare hours of luxury only come after a lifetime of isolation, of abuse and, always, of fear.

That insidious evil lurks under every rock in Lydia’s story, from beatings and broken bones, to crippling financial and emotional blackmail, to murder.

Incredibly, as she says, she didn’t even realise her life — although existence might be more apt — wasn’t normal because her life, from the cradle, was a world of domestic violence, drug abuse and gang activity.

That was Lydia’s world, a world in which she assumed we all lived.

Her world of pain began at home. Her father would beat her while her mother watched.

And like Lydia, many of those who will be condemned to her purgatory will be born into that world.

Life does have a way of teaching us resilience, but for Lydia her cruel lessons came hard and fast.

Her fear and pain at home saw her flee what should have been her nurturing sanctuary, her safe place.

But running from one disaster only led to her seeking shelter in another. As a 13-year-old she met the man who would, just a few years later, become her next abuser for almost a decade.

Sixteen years ago he was killed by bikie violence.

Her next partner picked up where he left off and the physical, financial and mental abuse went on. The broken bones still hurt, the scars on her body and in her mind are still raw.

Yet Lydia’s is also a story of triumph, a celebration of survival, a resumé which gives her the street cred to stand centre stage and be an ambassador, a voice, for the many, the way too many, who have been, who still are and who will be victims of domestic violence.

“By my teenage years, homelessness had become my home,” Lydia said.

“I was, looking back, caught in a cycle of self-sabotage and that has haunted me most of my life.

“Simply, I didn’t know what stability or peace looked like, let alone felt like. Life was chaos, and I thought that was normal because it was the only life I had known.”

That chaos followed her into adulthood, where she found herself in relationships mirroring the violence and instability of her early years.

Financial abuse left her trapped, drug use became a coping mechanism and the emotional and physical abuse eroded her sense of self-worth.

Raising children in an environment that unstable, that threatening, compounded the pain, making it all but impossible to see a way out.

In that pressure cooker something had to break, or blow.

And it did.

Lydia simply collapsed mentally and ended up in hospital, on the brink of an abyss where, if she took one more step, she doubted there would be any coming back.

It was, as they say, her personal rock bottom.

It was literally her life-or-death moment.

“I remember lying there thinking, ‘this can’t be it. This can’t be my story’,” she said.

Lydia chose life.

She was ready to close the book and start her tomorrow, now she has one.

And in that brave new world she could do nothing for anyone, not her children or her grandchildren, until she did something for herself.

Survival was just a starting point.

For the first time in her life, Lydia was going to stand up for herself. She was going to be free, to make her own decisions and to have financial stability.

Not the financial stability of a huge superfund, investments and a property portfolio. The financial stability to just have some money of her own, to do with what she wanted.

So she launched Mowing Motivation, a one-woman gardening service.

The business not only provided income but became a soothing balm, a source of healing.

“Gardening saved me,” Lydia said.

“It’s where I find peace, where I feel present and where my mental health thrives.

‘’Every time I plant something or nurture a garden back to life, it’s as if I’m nurturing my own soul.

“Someone once said to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow, and now I have a tomorrow.”

Today, her thriving gardening business is not just about making ends meet, it’s more about creating a life of purpose and stability.

For the first time, she and her children are living in a peaceful environment, free from the chaos which once defined their lives.

The new Lydia, inspired by her own transformation and her initial success as a one-woman business, is now also on a one-woman crusade to help others who feel, or are, trapped in similar cycles of despair.

Through her business, she has created a supportive and empowering environment where people can regain confidence, rebuild their lives and re-enter the workforce.

“I know what it feels like to think you’re not good enough, to feel you’ll never escape the darkness,” she said.

“That’s why I’ve built a team that’s more than just co-workers — we’re a family. We help each other overcome limiting beliefs and rediscover our potential.”

Lydia insists your past does not define you.

You can change. Maybe you can’t do it on your own, she says, but there is help available, there are people you can turn to.

“It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. You can create a life of peace, stability, and purpose. You just need to take the first step and believe you deserve better,” she said.

Lydia is proof the sun can rise again. She’s not just building gardens, she’s building lives, one flower, one person, one dream at a time.

“No, I haven’t had great experiences, until now I’ve never known financial stability — I just want to be treated as me,’’ she said.

“I don’t want to sleep with one eye open any more.”