My first home, if only briefly

In 1995 I was born in the dining room of our family home in Spring Street. My sister Georgia, six at the time, had gone to school that morning only to be picked up a few hours later by my mum’s friend, whose arms were laden with saucepans to heat water for the birth pool.

After I was born, the story goes that Georgia started calling me Maeve and so my parents accepted that to be my name. To be fair, it was an option picked by mum and dad already, but it was Georgia who got it to stick.

I learned in my later years of primary school at West End State School that a boy in my grade was born at home in the same street, just five days after me. I wonder how many home births have happened in West End over the years. My Aunty Sarah still lives in the house I was born in and I drew this for her birthday a couple of years ago. It sort of kicked off the whole project, in a way.