‘A long time coming’: Victoria’s apology to care leavers offers hope for a reckoning

John and Maureen Ellis in their home on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula. John, 84, is too unwell to travel to parliament to hear the Victorian premier’s apology, so Maureen will attend on his behalf. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

For decades, Maureen Ellis thought her husband, John, was merely restless.

He would start a new job, climb up the ranks, then abruptly quit. They’d move to the country, get their kids settled in a new school, then he’d suggest they head back to the city.