Beginning to Heal
By Lily's Mother
T.S. Eliot wrote, April is the cruelest month. I disagree. For me, March will always be the cruelest month.
It was a normal morning. The world was filled with the giddy anticipation and wonder that a new day holds. Then the phone rang-the jarring
interruption of joy that only a ringing phone can bring. My doctor very gently told me that they had the results of my amnio. There was a long
pause long enough for me to know that whatever she would tell me next would be devastating. It was. She calmly tried to talk about chromosomes
and missing chromosomes and could I reach my husband and meet her at her office?
I couldnt breathe. I couldnt speak. I felt as if something was crawling up inside me and sucking all the air and oxygen out of my body. When I
finally did speak, the only chromosomes I wanted to know about were the X and Y. My only question was, is it a girl? Another long pause followed by
a gentle yes. I remember reassuring her that I was fine and that my husband and I would be there in an hour.
My husband did come home and we drove to her office in a godawful silence, knowing the whole while we had made an unbearable choice. The right
choice, but a completely and utterly devastating choice. There were no words to fill that silence. My doctor was kind and gentle and said that her
office would arrange everything. Her only question was whether I wanted to be conscious or unconscious.
Unconscious I automatically replied (a decision I would later come to regret.) You'll have to go into the city then, she replied. Several hours
later we were told that the only doctor who performs the procedure was on vacation and would be back in a week. I was his first appointment on the
day of his return.
I don't know how I survived that week of knowing that I was carrying a baby girl I had so desperately wanted and was going to lose. And to lose
her by my own choice. I think I was already unconscious and numb long before the anesthesia. My baby kept moving and kicking and I kept begging her
to stop. I did a lot of begging that week; begging for her to stop moving, begging for her love and begging for her forgiveness.
I wanted to die with her and make all my pain go away. The only thing that kept me together (and barely together, I might add) was my two young
boys. I could see when I scared them and I knew enough to reconnect with them and let them know that somehow this would all be alright.
We have decided not to have another baby. Another baby could not replace Lily. She was not with me for very long, but long enough for my boys
and I to love her. My boys always refer to us a family of five. When they are asked to draw their families at school, they always include Lily,
drawn with wings and that circle thing that goes around her head you know Mama, it lights up. My oldest reminded me the other day that Lily lives
in our hearts and we can see her and talk to her any time we want. There is nothing more alive than love.
It has been two years since my daughter died, and not a day goes by that I dont think of her and wonder what life would be like with her. But
the beauty and grace of life is that it does go on, filled with all the joys and pleasures and loves that life holds for us. My wounds begin to
heal, and life feels good.
