It could never happen to me: When personal resilience is most needed - Diane Fingleton

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Summary

It is not until one has to confront a life-changing situation that one is able to realise the need for resilience as a way of surviving the situation, and even triumphing over it.

When I was sent to prison in May 2003, my world had collapsed around me. I was separated from my husband, my family, my home and my job – a job I had loved and tried my best to do well. After my sentencing, when I was about to be taken away to start my six-month jail term, a close friend told me: ‘Now don’t you lose your sense of humour in there, girl!’ Those words were to stay with me, even through times when I could see absolutely nothing silly or funny in what was going on around me.

So I studied, read, wrote, observed and learned from those around me. What had gone wrong? To what degree had I been responsible for what had happened in my job, my professional relationships? Why me? Many people thought that my being a woman in a high-profile position, who spoke out when she felt the need, had contributed to my downfall. Others thought it was because I had been trying to lead the magistracy on to a new path of specialist courts and new respect for Indigenous people before the courts.

For whatever reason, there I was – in prison – my career in tatters. I had to hope that the High Court might undo the damage to my reputation and career but the wait was going to be long, and patience, not my foremost strength, was needed.

Resilience, among many other things, is about self-sufficiency and self-reliance. Despite the tremendous support and love that came to me in prison, I knew, fundamentally, I was alone. What helped save me was the writings and stories about ‘resilience’ I studied – and that is how I believe I survived this dark period in my life relatively unscathed.

About the Author

Diane Fingleton

Diane McGrath Fingleton, BA, LLB, is a Queensland Magistrate, now sitting at the Caloundra Magistrates Court. She was first appointed a magistrate in November, 1995, and from 2000–03, was Chief Magistrate of Queensland.

Diane was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1984, having studied for her arts and law degrees at the University of Queensland. She went on to complete her articles of clerkship at the Brisbane firm of Roberts & Kane before taking up employment at the Caxton Legal Centre, and then the Legal Office (Q), the Department of Consumer Affairs in Queensland, and the Women’s Policy Unit of the Department of Cabinet in 1991. Diane was also a foundation member of the management committee of the Women’s Legal Service in Brisbane.