IF the Higgins family had been around in the time of Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph would have been invited into their home and offered every hospitality.
The family, from The Gap in Brisbane, did just that earlier this year when two East Timorese children Eliana Maia and Afonso de Jesus arrived in Australia for medical treatment.
Paul and Bernadette Higgins, along with their three children Nicholas, Liam and Brianna, welcomed Eliana Maia and her father Silvero into their home in July so the 12-year-old could recuperate from orthopaedic surgery.
And, while Afonso and his father were originally housed with another family, Odette and Jose Martins, eventually all four of the East Timorese visitors ended up with the Higgins family.
That act of hospitality finally came to a close this week when 16-year-old Afonso returned home on December 17.
Talking to the family over dinner several days before Afonso’s departure, it quickly became clear they would not hesitate to do it all again, and recommend the experience to others.
Paul and Bernadette were quick to point out that although the visiting children and their fathers where living with them for most of that five months, support was always at hand from the St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace extended college community and their children’s friends’ families who the couple said readily jumped in with lifts home from school or sport.
“We had plenty of offers from within the community to help but it was a practical thing for the families to stay in the one place,” Paul said.
That support also came from Paul’s parents Dan and Pat Higgins and Bernadette’s parents Brian and Mary Burnell.
“It has been a real community effort,” Bernadette said.
She said the family had also been blessed by the people they had met through the experience – the medical staff and specialist who donated their skills, to those who built and supplied elevated shoes or support braces free of charge.
“Our extended friendship group as a result of this is absolutely incredible; these are the most amazing people who do this work and work in these places,” she said.
“We’ve now become friends with them and as a result we are going to have an amazing family trip with multiple families to East Timor at Easter next year.”
Paul said the decision to host one of the East Timorese children and their fathers wasn’t a hard one to make.
“We have been the recipient of the same sort of generosity when we went to America twice when we were very young just after university,” he said.
“People gave us a lot of furniture and things like that and that made a lasting impression on us.
“It just felt pretty natural to think, ‘Well, this is a good opportunity for us to give back’.”
Bernadette said having the East Timorese guests had evolved into something much bigger than their original offer.
“It has evolved and grown organically,” she said. “We thought we’d have Eliana for six weeks, it ended up at one point having the two dads and two kids for several weeks, but it was lovely.”
Bernadette said the family had been considering renovations before the East Timorese visitors put living space into perspective.
“We asked them how big is your house and the room we are sitting in now is their whole house and they’ve got 13 kids,” she said.
“Suddenly we thought we’ve got more than enough room and people say to us ‘Oh my God how’s it feel having these families in your house’ and we think it’s fine we’ve got so much room.
“You realise how much you have; each of our children has their own room and they (the East Timorese visitors) have 13 people sharing two rooms and one of (those rooms) is for cooking.
“You just get perspective.”
Youngest son Liam, 13, agreed and was proud of his parents for making the offer.
“There are a lot of other people in need and we (Australians) are focusing on getting the right Christmas present and having the right Christmas cake and we are all caught up in everything and we forget that these people are living in huts with no water and no electricity and it puts things in perspective,” he said.
Brianna, the youngest of the Higgins children, shared her room with Eliana and said it was like having her own sister.
The 10-year-old, who now speaks Tetum, said language wasn’t really a problem even at the beginning and the girls became firm friends.
The Higgins family said the Catholic faith was a strong common bond in the early days.
“Even in terms of the common rituals of the Mass, saying grace or even blessing ourselves those common rituals were a comfort in the early days,” Bernadette said.
All three Higgins children were keen to encourage other families to do the same in similar situations and proud of their parents’ hospitality.
Nicholas, 15, said the experience built on the social justice teaching from school and allowed him to gain a better understanding of the issues.
“Social justice is a big topic in our school community and up until Afonso and Eliana and their families came to Australia it sort of fell on deaf ears but just having them here for such a long time and getting to know them and getting to know their stories it starts to ring true to you and it starts to make sense,” he said.
He said if there was anyone who needed help like the East Timorese, the opportunity should be embraced.
Nicholas said helping the two families gave him a sense of pride to know when social justice issues were discussed at school that he and his family had been active in supporting someone in need.
“It just gives you a really good sense of pride,” he said.
Bernadette said she and Paul were also proud of their children’s acceptance of the situation.
“It’s not necessarily an easy thing to do; they’ve had to share the love, share the time, share the schedule, be flexible about running off to hospital, and there has been a lot of time involved with those sorts of things and the kids have been extremely flexible and they’ve been awesome,” she said.
Nick broke into the conversation to correct his mother and encapsulate the entire family’s feelings
“Yes it’s been challenging,” he said, “but it’s been enjoyable.”
