Ms Pearson will be at Parliament House in Canberra to hear Mr Rudd's words. (The Epoch Times)
The 45-year-old single mum says her low self-esteem is the result of a tortured childhood spent inside a Melbourne children's institution.
"We were treated like a number there, so you go through life thinking that's what you are, just a number," she told AAP.
Her story reflects that of more than half a million "forgotten" Australians who were placed in orphanages and institutions from the 1920s to the early 1970s.
On Monday Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make a national apology to the survivors, many of whom suffered years of neglect and abuse in state care.
Ms Pearson will be at Parliament House in Canberra to hear Mr Rudd's words, which she hopes will be the start of the "healing from life".
"This country is about to realise that 500,000 people have been through the pain and abuse of institutional care," she said.
"It's going to be hard for all of us, but we are finally going to get the apology we deserve, and it means so much to me."
Ms Pearson was sent to the Orana children's home in Burwood at the age of four because her alcoholic father and mentally ill mother were unable to look after her.
She went along with her two brothers, who were soon relocated to other orphanages and rarely reunited with her.
Ms Pearson says she suffered 13 years of mental trauma she calls "institutional love".
"There was no love, I just lost my childhood."
She was often teased and called "homo" at school because she came from the "home" her classmates thought was for delinquent children.
Ms Pearson dropped out of school at 14 and finally left the institution at 17, as a very troubled young woman.
Although her depression spiralled out of control, Ms Pearson says she was lucky enough not to turn to drugs and alcohol, like many "forgotten" Australians including her now estranged brother.
"I have been lucky enough not to have to turned to alcohol and drugs but there's certainly a lot of us that have.
"And there's a lot of people who aren't even going to be able to see the apology."
Another group who will be recognised in the bipartisan apology are the 10,000 British child migrants who were shipped to Australia and sent to charitable and religious institutions.
Harold Haig, the spokesman for The International Association of Former Child Migrants and their Families, says the apology should be followed up with federal compensation.
The former child migrant, who will also be in Canberra on Monday for the apology, says federal governments played a direct role in the migration scheme.
"We were told that we were orphans and we found out in our 40s, 50s and 60s that was all a lie," he told AAP.
"We see the national apology as the first step but our struggle for compensation will not end."
Compensation schemes exist in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania and cases are before the courts in Victoria and NSW.
Federal governments have allocated more than $1 million to Child Migrant Trust branches in Melbourne and Perth, but contributions have now ceased.
The Rudd government says compensation is an issue for the states and institutions involved.
