Anne-Marie Foster says shopping lists were pretty much the extent of her writing experience before she decided to pen a story she had carried all her life.  

It’s a story you imagine would make a cracking film – one of hardship, violence, betrayal and heartbreak - and it’s all the more remarkable because it’s true.  Published last year, The Belle of Belfast is the story of Isabelle and her childhood sweetheart, Jack, and the events that conspired to keep them apart for 50 years before a remarkable reunion initiated by her daughter – Anne-Marie.

“Her life wasn’t just hard, it was almost hard to believe,” said Anne-Marie, who lives in Patterson Lakes and works for Peninsula Health in Frankston.  “It’s about how this brave and courageous woman faces the worst of the worst in life and comes through it all with love and hope in her heart.  It’s a truly inspirational story that lives up to the motto ‘Never give up, never give in’.”
Isabelle was born in Belfast in 1931 and met Jack, a champion Irish dancer, when she was 19 or 20.  They fell in love and vowed to get married and move to Canada.  Jack said he would go first and then send for her.  For two years she waited, heartbroken, but a letter never came.  Eventually she married Harry, and only then found out that her mother had intercepted Jack’s letters – including one with her boat ticket to Canada – and burned them.

The Belle of Belfast documents the incredible events that shaped the life of an extraordinary woman and led finally to her reunion with Jack 15 years ago for her 70th birthday, when he presented her with the diamond ring he had kept for her for 50 years.

“As my Mammy turned 70 years old, I knew there was one more thing I had to do for her birthday -find Jack and tell him the truth about what happened all those years ago,” Anne-Marie said.  “Finding this fella was very important to me after everything my mother had been through, to let him know that not only is she a remarkable human being but she did the right thing.”