I was in kindergarten. My sister third grade. We were too young to visit the maternity ward, so my grandparents and my father took turns sitting downstairs with us. It was a long day. It might have even been two days. My mom never came down, she stayed by my aunt's side. She was deathly ill. She was trying to give birth to my cousin, but there were many complications. Only now do I realize that they were both almost lost.
There were drugs in her system. What drugs I don't know. Back then, in 1973, I have to believe that most of the drugs that are here now weren't around. But I had always known that my dear Aunti had problems with living like my parents.
And then Darren was born. We couldn't visit. Both he and my aunt were simply exhausted. That was a long time ago, but it was the first and only time I thought of childbirth as being a scary time.
My cousin Darren died at the end of the summer. He was 40. My only cousin on my mother's side. He came into the world surrounded by teams of medical professionals trying their best to give him life. He died the same way.
My condolences to you and your family. It's difficult loosing a family member at any age. Although he came and went the same way, seek comfort in knowing that the 40 years of life that he enjoyed is more than a lot of infants, toddlers, children, teen and young adults have been born under the same circumstances. Sometimes, unplanned or unwanted pregnancies causes expecting mothers not to take care of themselves which gravely affects the development of the unborn baby. Many don't understand the implications of prenatal care. Women in other countries, pray for the conditions, finances, and medical care that we have, while we take them for granted.
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