The character of Will was inspired by a real soldier. Private James Charles Martin is the youngest known ANZAC soldier to die in active service. Born in 1901, he attended school in Hawthorn, Victoria, where he received cadet training under the compulsory scheme. When his father was unable to join up, being the only other male in the family, Jim persuaded his parents to sign the permission form that was required for anyone under twenty-one. Reluctantly, they agreed. Jim was fourteen years and three months old. He died of typhoid fever at Gallipoli in 1915.
The character of Mae was inspired by a real nurse. Maud Butler was from Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, and left school aged fourteen. Twice she tried to blend into the army and get to the frontline during World War One. In 1915, she cut her hair, disguised herself as a soldier and snuck onto a troopship at night. At first she mingled with the soldiers, played cards, and no one suspected a thing. But finally what gave her away were her black boots, which were nothing like the regulation army boots. Within months, Maud tried again. But again she was discovered and sent home. After the war, Maud went to night school, became a nurse and raised a family.
There were many young teenage boys who enlisted in World War One, and many teenage girls who signed up to nurse the sick during the Spanish flu years, knowing that they too were risking their lives.
We often think of heroes only in relation to war, rather than illness, but doctors, nurses and volunteers put themselves on the line for others during the Spanish flu, and continue to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As I write this the COVID-19 pandemic is not over. There will never be a universal story about 2020, but I hope that Harper’s story will encourage children to tell their own. I, for one, would love to read them, real or fantastical.