When Life Gives You Lemurs
by Tim Husband and Deborah Kane
Allen & Unwin
Warning: This story has reference to sexual assault which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
Born in 1962, Tim Husband grew up in New Zealand in a Jehovah’s Witness family.
On the weekends, he went with his father and older brother to spread the words of God to the “sullied and unenlightened”. This made it difficult to fit onto the community and made Tim a target for schoolyard bullies.
Having God on his side didn’t prevent the school bully, who was built like a “brick shithouse”, from bashing him up. And it didn’t stop his father from beating him every night; it didn’t save him from constantly finding himself in detention at school, and it didn’t save him from being sexually assaulted.
Tim’s only solace was collecting wounded animals and spending time with them away from his house. The small critters gave him a sense of belonging even though the Jehovah’s Witness scriptures stated that animals weren’t allowed into heaven.
By the age of fourteen, Tim was learning how to survive. He could deal with the bullies by being a smart-arse and deal with the headmaster by quoting the scriptures. He didn’t have any choice but to accept the nightly beatings, but he would carry the impact of the sexual assault with him for decades.
Volunteering to clean shit out of animal’s cages at the local zoo was the highlight of his week, and the zoo also ended up being a safe place when he was “disfellowshipped” or banished from the church, the community and his family at the age of 14.
Spending time with the shy lemurs, Tim realised that the lethargic animals didn’t have any structures to climb or any enrichment in their cage. Realising they were actually depressed, Tim set about rectifying the situation. However, it was much easier to bring the lemurs back to finding joy in their lives than to deal with his own depression.
Tim shares with the reader the battles he has with his “demon self” raging in his mind, sabotaging everything good he achieves. He finally decides to seek professional help to confront the black shadow that has been circling him, and wants his story to be a positive one of finding hope and healing.
Tim, now an international expert in designing, building and curating some of the best-known zoos on the world, has come a long way from the broken and discarded kid who sat abandoned at the Whangarei bus stop.
Lezly Herbert
