“Some people are quick to judge, but slow to take responsibility. If you cant handle it, maybe its better to walk away.”
Lydia and her husband, James, had been over the moon about their first baby. James had spent the entire nine months doting on herdriving her to university, making sure she was safe, especially when the pavements were icy. Hed even told her not to leave the house if it was too slippery. But just before the birth, he got sent away for work. He couldve refusedhe was planning to quit anyway once the baby arrived. No way was he going to keep traveling for work while Lydia was home alone with their child.
But then the contractions started the moment James left. Not only was the pain unbearable, but he wasnt even there. This wasnt how shed imagined welcoming their firstborn.
The baby was perfectly healthy, but Lydia couldnt bring herself to call James and share the news. Let him hear it from someone else, she thought bitterly.
She glanced around the ward. Across from her was Natalie, a woman in her forties. Nearby, a younger woman, Emily, was chatting loudly on her phone. And by the door, another womanAnniewas crying silently, her face turned to the wall.
After the exhausting ordeal of labor, Lydia collapsed onto the thin hospital pillow, stamped with a triangle logo, and fell into a deep sleep. Like nothing else in the world existed.
“Are you planning to breastfeed?” The voice pulled Lydia halfway out of sleep. She turned, still groggy, expecting the nurse to be talking to her.
But nothe nurse was standing by Annie, who still hadnt turned around.
“Why wont you even look at her? Just hold her. Look how beautiful she is,” the nurse urged. Annie stayed frozen.
“Some people know how to spread their legs, but not how to take responsibility. If you cant handle it, maybe its better to walk away.” With that, the nurse lingered for a moment, then left.
Natalie was the first to speak up, her voice sharp with emotion. “You think I wanted this? Im forty-threemy sons married! Im about to be a grandmother, and now this? But whats done is done. The babys innocent. If you didnt want it, you shouldve made different choices. Now shes just going to bounce around foster homes? Have you even thought about her life?”
Annie sobbed harder, no longer trying to hide it.
“What good is crying? It wont fix anything,” Natalie snapped. “Just take the baby, feed her, and stop being foolish.”
“Maybe she was assaulted,” Emily chimed in, finally putting her phone down. “Or what if the father was someone close? Like a stepdad?”
Lydia listened, guilt gnawing at her. Here she washappy, loved, with a husband who adored heryet she still found reasons to complain. And then there was Annie, alone, with a child no one seemed to want. A little girl whod grow up resenting the world because her mother was abandoned or because her parents were unreliable.
No balloons to celebrate her birth. No flowers for her mother. Nowhere to go.
The weight of it all made Lydia speak up. “If you had somewhere to go would you keep her?”
Annie looked at her like she was mad. “Of course. But thats never going to happen.” She turned back to the wall, silent.
A couple hours later, Lydia announced, “You and the baby can stay at the dorm. My mums the warden. You can work thereclean floors, and theyll give you a room.”
“Oh!” Emily perked up. “Ive got a brand-new going-home outfit. Ill call my husbandweve got two, we dont need that many.”
“Ill bring clothes,” Natalie said. “Theyre not new, but theyre good. Washed and pressed. My sons grown, and the grandkids get everything new anyway.”
By the next day, women from other wards started dropping byoffering a pram, a cot, a blanket.
“I dont have anything,” one young mum said, “but I can buy formula. Just in case.”
Annie burst into tearsnot from despair this time, but from the sudden rush of kindness. “Ill pay it back,” she mumbled, but the other mums just patted her shoulder. “Just pass it on when someone else needs it.”
That night, drifting off, Lydia smiled. Everything would be alright. Annie would find her way. And her little girl? Shed grow up loved. Thats all that really mattered.
