When Louis and Margaret agreed that they needed to place me for adoption, the actual work of doing so fell on Margaret's shoulders. She took out an ad in a nursing journal. I have no idea how it was worded, but she went to a nursing journal because of her never-realized dream of being a nurse. She had kept up with nursing throughout all those years.
Enter my Aunt Joan. Aunt Joan was Dad's sister, and she subscribed to that very nursing journal. She knew Dad and Mom were looking to adopt a baby, and sent the magazine on to them, with the ad circled. Letters were exchanged, and a meeting was arranged. Margaret only met with four couples, from forty-odd responses to the ad.
She actually met with and sized up the couples to whom she was thinking about giving her baby. She brought my older sister Imogene with her, as Louis was, by that time, too ill to have the care of her. She was four, and not yet in school.
After the meetings with all four families, mother had the list down to two. Both couples were older. I guess, in those days, people didn't adopt until they had given up all hope of their own children, and that took longer than it does now. My Mom and Dad also agreed that they would adopt a second child in the future so that I would not be an "only." That never happened. By the time I was old enough to notice,I felt that Mom, especially, had bitten off more than she could chew. I was a colicky baby, and there were problems with Dad's mother, who initially said that she would not accept an adopted grandchild.
My parents told me, as soon as I began to ask where I came from, that I was adopted, or "chosen," as they put it. I don't suppose it's their fault that I carried for years the impression of a huge Baby Warehouse, with bassinettes stacked up like drawers, and them walking down an aisle, pulling out drawer after drawer before finding the one, the only...ME!
Louis died on the day the adoption was finalized in court; six months after I was born. He was 60.
and things just continue to be FAScinating!
ReplyDeleteYour girls are going to appreciate this... and down the line, your grand, and great-grand children.
I miss my mom, of whom I would ask many questions I neglected to ask when she was alive, just for this kind of history lesson.
Fireberry
You definitely have the look of your mother. How lucky you have been to have had two mothers who loved and cared about you. Looking forward to more of this story.
ReplyDeleteFire Berry, I should have asked a lot more questions than I did!
ReplyDeleteDeb, thanks. You're right, I have been very lucky.
Deb, I ahve actually had four mothers, because my stepmother and Jim's mother both treated me like one of their own. I have indeed been blessed with wise women.
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