Loribelle Spirovski

What do you remember?

So we lived in a few different places.

As I mentioned, my grandparents' place in Catanduanes, and we lived in a couple of places in Manila itself.

But the one I remember most is, as you said, the one with this concrete courtyard.

I don't know why the imagery of that courtyard sits so strongly in my mind.

I can't find an equivalent layout in Australia.

It was kind of like little townhouses, really little, with these courtyards in the middle.

And I think there were several rows of them.

But it ended up creating a tiny community because you sort of had ready-made best friends living around you.

And after school, we would just play together on this courtyard.

And you had extended family living there as well?

I think in the Philippines, the situation is family will just dip in and out of each other's lives.

Like everyone's place is everyone else's place.

You know, you're always welcome to come and stay for a night or two.

And we often went to stay at other family members' houses.

So home was a very nebulous construct for me because it wasn't really tethered to a specific place.

And I feel like that's something I carried into Australia as well.

So one of the greatest gifts I think that my dad gave us is that he worked solely to support not just us, but also his aging parents in Serbia.

And so my mom could afford to just stay home with me and really offer me a safety that was compromised by other things, by just the sort of

uncertainty of living in the Philippines.