Theme Thursday ~ Late

Halloween 1983

Four months since Dad passed away.

I’m 17 and two month’s “late.” What the hell am I going to do? How am I going to tell my mother that I could possibly be pregnant?

Thoughts running through my mind included how can I take care of this without getting caught? Am I going to have this baby if I am pregnant? What about adoption?

I ask my mother “How "late" do you have to be before you start to worry?” She responds “How "late" are you?” I reply “Two months.” She said “Worry now.”

One week later I’m in a Planned Parenthood facility with my mother. How ironic – Planned Parenthood – NOT. It’s confirmed, I’m pregnant. My mother asks “Who’s the father?” Me: “You don’t know him.” Again, racing thoughts – “What to do, what to do?? Someone please tell me what to do?”

My mother says “You have to decide what you are going to do.” I tell her that I need more time. She says “fine” and walks away.

Now what? I’ve graduated high school, thankfully. I think it would be frowned upon that a Catholic school student got pregnant. And had put off college for a year. Apparently, I’ll now be putting off college indefinitely. What to do?

May 12, 1984 – the day before Mother’s Day

My baby was due on April 28, 1984 - yup, he is "late." I go into labor at 6 p.m. on May 12, 1984 and go to the hospital at 9 p.m. where they promptly sent me home – you aren’t ready, I’m told. Back in at 11 p.m. and delivered a healthy boy at 11:34 p.m.

If I terminated the pregnancy, I never would’ve experienced the never-ending struggles that I had as a single mother. 11 years as a single parent meant paying bills "late"(if at all), "late" getting him to school because we had no car...but, somehow, we got by.


November 19, 2009

Now...much "later"...My son is 25 now. Married, college graduate and now buying a house. Bright blue eyes, curly blond hair. Looks just like me, except I’m not blond or blue eyed. If I had given him up for adoption, I never would’ve looked at a blond haired, blue eyed child and wonder if he was mine. Being “late” was one of the best thing that ever happened to me.