Transforming the Capital

Maydene Short was more city than Salish Islander. Her friendship with Calypso connected her to the island and the community of women who cared for women. Birthing, nursing and making room for families to thrive. Those three things kept May and Calypso woven. Midwifery in 1960's America was a Border Town more hippy than mainstream medicine. Maydene Short came from an England which had just moved from a firm and committed esteem for midwives who delivered babies at home. Hospitalization and the role of the M.D. would displace the home-based midwife soon enough. But May was on a ride ahead of the curve. Calypso had the blood of kahuna who cared for woman and her family as a whole. The natural process of birthing at home was almost as natural as surfing ocean waves. Two women rode the same wave, but started from opposite sides of the Planet.
The five hour plane ride from Honolulu to Seattle those decades earlier opened a potential neither woman could have imagined.

"Do you really believe we can do this. Are you crazy, May." Calypso was not convinced she wasn't crazy, so the expletive was just her way to sputter through the proposal. The idea of creating a birthing center in the middle of Seattle was more than Calypso was prepared for. Midwifery was no doubt her calling, she was not questioning that.

"I have made very powerful connections in this city Calypso. People who not only have money, but people who believe in women. They believe in creation. Thanks to my Mum and Dad the Capital Street Apartments has no mortgage. And, as of today I am twenty-two. I own this place and the land upon which these brick are built ... well, it's what you folks call 'aina. This land feeds me. I feed it. I want to share it with you and your family. Forever! That's what this paperwork says." The parcel of paperwork May held bound in plain brown wrapping was a trust fund that held into perpetuity this building and the half block of land upon which it rose.

"You will never need to move from your beloved woods on the Island, but. But, this place this building of bricks will always be here for birthing and caring for people. How we do this may change as we change. What cannot change is this line "Care for children, women and their families is fundamental."

In 1972 The Capital Street Apartments quietly transformed into a birthing center for low-income families. Maydene's east-facing second floor apartment remained her personal residence. Early into the process of conversion, one of the downstairs apartments became a fully functioning kitchen equipped with a natural gas Rayburn with enough heat equivalent to 20 radiators. Plenty of hot water, cozy heat, and cast iron cook tops for meals became the heart of The Capital Street Apartments.

If you counted, the beautiful Mahealani Moon of December 25, 2015 and all her many cycles since 1972, the 'iewe, the afterbirth of more than twelve hundred newborns were buried in the rich and sustaining gardens that surrounded a stout brick building on Capital Street. A gala party was traveling by ferry and carriage to welcome a new sort of birthing on this Full Moon. But what did not change was this line "Care for children, women and their families is fundamental."