My siblings say to me: “You had different parents. We don’t know what your parents are like because we didn’t have them.” Because I was an accident: they were so tired by the time I came along. Dad started crying. He said, “We were done, Marie.” And she’s like, “Well, here we go again.” I had the best childhood, I got away with murder. My sister is 13 years older – she was like my second mom. My parents had such a strong sense of themselves. The music played in the house was The Fureys, The Dubliners; Daniel O’Donnell could be Harry Styles in my mother’s mind. My parents would jive in the kitchen. They were fantastic dancers together. We were the sort of family who ate dinner on our laps in front of Home and Away.
Dad was looking for me to be a secondary schoolteacher.
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