So, you know how some people are all talk when it comes to responsibility? Like, theyll make a big fuss but when it actually comes down to it, theyd rather walk away than step up.
Lydia and her husband, James, had been over the moon about their first baby. For nine months, hed been doting on herdriving her to uni, making sure she was safe, especially when the pavements were icy. He even insisted she stay home on the worst days. But right before the birth, he got sent off for work. He couldve refusedhe was planning to quit anyway once the baby came. No way was he going to keep working away from home while Lydia was left alone with a newborn.
Well, wouldnt you know it, the contractions started the second James left. Not only was the pain unbearable, but he wasnt even there. Not exactly the way shed imagined welcoming their first child.
The baby was perfectly healthy, but Lydia couldnt bring herself to call James and tell him. Let him hear it from someone else, she thought bitterly.
She glanced around the hospital ward. Across from her was a woman in her forties. Next to her, a younger girl was chatting on her phone. And by the door, another woman was crying quietly, facing the wall.
After everything shed just been through, Lydia collapsed onto the stiff hospital pillow and fell straight into a deep sleep, like the world outside didnt even exist.
“Are you going to feed the baby?” The voice cut through her half-dream. She turned, expecting the nurse to be talking to herbut no.
The nurse was standing by the woman near the door, the one whod been crying. “Well? Say something. At least hold her. Look how beautiful she is.” The woman stayed frozen, still turned away.
“You lot are quick enough to open your legs, but when it comes to responsibility, suddenly its too much. Maybe you shouldve given her up.” The nurse huffed and walked off.
The woman in her fortiesNataliewas the first to speak up. “You think I wanted this?” she said, voice cracking. “Im forty-three, my sons married, Im about to be a grandma! And now this What am I supposed to do? Its done now. The baby didnt ask for this. If you didnt want her, you shouldve sorted it sooner. Now shes just going to bounce around foster homes? Have you even thought about what her lifell be like?”
The crying womanAnniebroke down completely, sobbing like shed been holding it in for years.
“Whats the point of crying?” Natalie snapped. “That wont fix anything. Take your baby, feed her, and stop being daft.”
“Maybe she was assaulted?” piped up the girl with the phoneEmily, finally putting it down. “Or what if the babys from someone she trusted? A family member, or stepdad?”
Lydia listened, heart aching like it was somehow her fault. Here she was, with a loving husband, supportive parents, everything going rightand yet she still found reasons to complain.
And then there was Annie, completely alone. And the babybrand new to the world, already unwanted. A little girl whod grow up angry at everything because her mothers parents were alcoholics, or because some bloke promised her the world and then vanished the second he found out about the baby.
No balloons to celebrate her birth. No flowers for her mother. No place for either of them to go.
Lydia felt a hot rush of shame and pity. “If you had somewhere to go,” she asked quietly, “would you keep her?”
Annie stared at her like shed lost her mind. “Course I would. But thats never happening.” She took it as a cruel joke, turned back to the wall, and didnt speak again.
But a few hours later, Lydia stood up, determined. “You and the baby can stay in student halls. My mums the warden. You can clean floors, and theyll give you a room.”
“Oh!” Emily chimed in, finally looking up from her phone. “Ive got a spare going-home outfit. Ill call my husbandweve got two, we dont need this many.”
“Ill bring clothes,” Natalie said. “From my daughter. Not new, but good quality. Washed and ironed. We dont need themIve got a son. The grandkidsll get new stuff anyway.”
By the next day, women from other wards were dropping by with thingsa pram, a cot, a blanket.
“I havent got anything,” said a young mum from down the hall. “But Ill buy formula, just in case she cant breastfeed.”
Annie burst into tears againbut this time from sheer relief. “Ill pay everyone back,” she mumbled, but the other mums just patted her shoulder.
“Pass it on when someone else needs it.”
That night, as she drifted off, Lydia smiled to herself. Everything was going to be alright for Annie. Shed find someone decent. And her little girl would grow up loved.
What more could anyone ask for?
Ever come across a story like this? Feels like a bit of a miracle, doesnt it?
