I heard the siren song of the professional mermaid, but I still haven’t found my voice | Megan Dunn

Hundreds of mermaids work in aquariums across the world - from Texas to Denmark - and I need you to listen to what they have to say

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I can't have a baby at 40, I'm not Nicole Kidman." That was my mantra when I was 39. I kept saying it to close friends and cackling with laughter. Then the unthinkable happened. I had a baby at 40, didn't sleep through the night for two years, woke up aged 42 and heard the mermaids.

I heard them because I called them. What motivated me? Poetry. TS Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock reads: I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me." That's because he's a man, I thought. I will Skype the mermaids, and because I'm a woman it will be easy. We'll relate, each to each.

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