In the corridor of a women’s clinic, an elderly woman sat on a bench. Beside her was a slender girl, about fifteen, wearing a short skirt that barely covered her slender knees. The grandmother had brought her granddaughter for an abortion.
The grandmother sighed heavily the whole time, while the granddaughter glanced around nervously, clutching a bag at her feet. A woman in her thirties approached and sat down next to them.
“Are you here for the same room?”
“Yes… Tell me, does it hurt?”
“It’s unpleasant, of course, but they’ll give you something for the pain. The main thing is it’s quick—five minutes tops if it’s early. That’s what they say, anyway. I’ve never done this before either, and honestly, I’m scared. And logically, I know… the baby’s done nothing wrong.”
“Oh Lord, what a mess… You see, this is my granddaughter—still in Year 10, and that boy tricked her and left her like this. Now she won’t hear a word from him about the baby. What are we supposed to do? She still needs to finish school! Her parents are gone—I raised her myself… Oh, what misery.”
“Gran, enough, you’re breaking my heart—it’s hard enough already. That woman just said it won’t hurt, so let’s just get it over with.”
“Oh, love, that’s your baby in there—alive—and you just want to end it… She’s right, the little one’s innocent. You know what? Get up. We’re leaving. We’ll manage. We raised children during the war—we can handle this. And you don’t need that Tom of yours, calling himself a father… Up you get, grab your bag—we’re going home. There’s nothing for us here.”
The girl seemed to wait for nothing else. She snatched her bag and strode toward the exit, her grandmother following. The woman on the bench smiled slightly as she watched them go, lost in her own thoughts.
Twenty Years Later
“Mum, I love him—it’s serious, I promise! Danny’s a good man, he’s got his whole future ahead!”
“What future? If you marry now, you’ll—”
“Mum, we’re twenty, not kids. A wedding won’t stop us from finishing uni. We’re not even spending much—just signing the papers, then dinner with Dad’s family and his nan. We’ll celebrate with friends later. Danny adores his nan—she raised him.”
“Oh, Daisy… What won’t I do for my girl? Guess we’d better meet the in-laws properly, then… Invite them round, love.”
“Hello, come in! I’m Daisy’s mum, Julia. Please, sit down at the table.”
As Julia looked at Danny’s grandmother, something nudged her memory. Danny’s mother, Anna, looked barely older than her son. Over dinner, the story came out—she’d had him at sixteen, after falling pregnant by a schoolmate who first denied the baby, then was forced to marry her to avoid legal trouble. On paper, they were husband and wife—but they never lived together, and soon divorced.
“Truth be told, Julia… we nearly didn’t keep Danny. Anna was just a kid herself—what sort of mother could she be? No parents around—her mum died young, her father vanished into prison. I raised her alone. Then she turns up pregnant… Who could blame us for thinking we couldn’t manage?”
“But at the clinic, waiting our turn… A woman sat with us. Also there for the same thing. She said, ‘Babies aren’t to blame,’ and—well, it hit me like a bolt. Maybe it was a sign. So we left. Kept him. Anna finished school, then college—trained as a baker. Tom, Danny’s father, never lifted a finger. Neither did his family.”
“But we got by. Anna remarried, had a daughter. Now she bakes wedding cakes—makes good money. So if Danny and Daisy marry, they can have my flat—I’ll move in with Anna. That’s our story.”
Julia could hardly believe it. These were the same grandmother and granddaughter who’d walked out of the clinic that day. Because of them, she’d found the courage to keep the baby—her beloved Daisy.
Back then, after overhearing the old woman, a strange calm had washed over her. She realised she could do this. The father was a married man—her first love. Life pulled them apart, and when they crossed paths again, he already had a family. Just once, they met… and then she found out.
She refused to ruin his marriage, never told him, convinced she had no right to bring a child into such a mess. She’d talked herself into the clinic, repeating it was for the best. But in five minutes, those two changed her mind. If they could manage, so could she. Maybe it was fate.
She walked out, just like they had. The pregnancy was smooth, the birth easy—and Daisy arrived, the light of her life.
Now fate had brought them together again, this time for joy. Two children who might never have existed, now about to marry. Wasn’t that proof enough?
People get signs all the time. Some listen, some don’t. Sometimes five minutes is all it takes to change everything. A decision—to keep the baby you never planned. And later, you can’t imagine life without them, shuddering at the thought they might never have been.
Life’s unpredictable. But when you feel you’re making a mistake—pause. Sometimes five minutes changes everything.
