Kintsugi Heroes
Diane Klem-Goode · 46 min
Born into extreme domestic violence with nowhere to turn, Diane Klem-Goode transformed childhood terror into a lifelong mission to secure safe housing and healing for women escaping abuse.
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At five years old, Diane Klem-Goode made a vow that would shape her entire life. After her mother tried to leave her father and was caught, Diane was struck and thrown across a room. Later that same year, during the tense hour before her father came home from work, her mother attacked her. Her sister stopped it. In that moment, with no safe adult in the house, Diane decided she would get her own home. She didn't know how. She just knew she had to.
Born into extreme domestic violence, Diane carried it in her body from infancy: severe asthma, anxiety, no self-worth. But that moment of deciding to escape became her fuel. From age fourteen, she worked seven days a week, took every job she could find, saved every cent, and visualised her goals each night. She bought her first home at twenty-one. Later, when her children were born, she made the harder choice to step back from her parents to protect them from the same patterns. The unresolved trauma lived in her bones as arthritis, chronic migraines, and inflammation until she worked with a therapist to release it.
Years later, Diane met a woman at a seminar who had slept in her car with her children to escape an abusive marriage, because refuges would not take mixed-gender families. That conversation shifted everything. Diane realised abuse cuts across every income level and that safety requires more than a few months in temporary housing. She is now building beautiful, long-term homes where families can stay together and heal. She also calls on anyone who witnesses abuse to contact the police, because the person being hurt often has no voice. Most importantly, she wants anyone still in an abusive situation to know this: reach out and ask for help. There are people who will listen. A different life is waiting.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses domestic & family violence, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au
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