Carole from Belgium : Becoming a mother far from home during a pandemic

Carole grew up in Brussels in a cosmopolitan neighbourhood in a country in which the two major cultural and linguistic groups have lived side-by-side for a long time. Growing up in this environment, Carole speaks of having to be open to differences in others and this can be seen no better than in her advocacy for her son Lio, born just before the Covid lockdown in Tasmania and diagnosed with Down's Syndrome.   Like many migrants, she has faced the tough situation of not being able to introduce her little boy physically to all his family in Belgium because of extended international border cloures, and talks about dealing with this. But Carole's journey to Australia started just over 8 years before, when a friend in Belgium asked if Carole wanted to accompany her to Australia. It was not a place Carole had considered. She had just spent months working in Zambia and traveling around Africa and was looking to travel some were similarly more adventurous.  But she ended up coming and meeting her current partner in Mackay, Queensland.   However, neither of them were keen to stay long term in Mackay and after a holiday to Tasmania decided to make the move to Hobart, a place which appealed to Carole's foodie instincts and that also offered a more appealing cultural life.Music :"Night in Venice" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/