A Heartbreaking Story
A friend in high school had a baby that her family decided to raise and take custody of, but the way I found out is something I’ll never forget.
It was impressive how under wraps the whole thing was, and it seemed believable that her parents would’ve had another baby (she got pregnant at 13). I dropped by one weekend to drop off an item my friend loaned me for prom and saw that a birthday family was going on for the toddler.
Her face was a mixture of emotions. I didn’t know if she was in pain, upset, or angry… it seemed like everything was running through her at the same time. When I asked if she was alright, she just broke down and started crying. She cried about how hard it was waking up and calling her son “little brother”, and how hard it was to know she was so unfit to be a mom, that her parents wouldn’t even acknowledge the fact that biologically, it was her kid. I just listened and let her cry.
We never spoke about it after that. I don’t think there was any need to. There’s no way I could understand what she was going through. But I will always be there for her if it comes up again in our lifetime.