Gerard Majella

it was on the evening of my sister’s late night at the maternity ward that I felt our job titles switch. births, marriages, deaths: their importance comes from the way they change the names you call yourself, the names to which you answer others. to my astonishment, ‘uncle’ didn’t mean superannuation, but instead a rootless irresponsibility I’d missed through childhood, and the knowledge that if I did things properly, there’d always be someone who’d associate me with the sporadic appearance of cuddly animals.