**Diary Entry 15th October, 2023**
Lydia and her husband had longed for this childtheir first. For nine months, hed been her shield, walking her to and from university, especially when the pavements turned to ice. Hed even forbidden her from stepping outside during the worst of it. Then, just before the birth, work sent him away. He couldve refusedhe was planning to quit anyway once the baby arrived. What kind of life was it, always on shifts, leaving Lydia alone with a newborn?
But the pains struck the moment Eugenes train pulled out. Unbearable, and no husband beside her. Not how shed imagined welcoming their firstborn.
The baby was healthy, but Lydia couldnt bring herself to call him. Let him hear the news from someone else.
She glanced around the ward. Opposite lay a woman in her forties. Nearby, a younger girl chattered into her phone. By the door, another woman wept silently, face turned to the wall.
Exhausted, Lydia sank into the thin hospital pillow and fell into a heavy sleep, as if the world had vanished.
“Will you be breastfeeding?” a nurses voice cut through her haze. Lydia turned eagerlybut the nurse was addressing the weeping woman.
“Why wont you even look at her? Shes beautiful,” the nurse pressed. The woman didnt move.
“Easy enough to spread your legs, isnt it? But if you cant take responsibility, better to give her up.” With a sigh, the nurse left.
The older womanNataliespoke first, voice thick with emotion. “You think I wanted this? Im forty-three! My sons married, Ill be a grandmother soon. What am I meant to do now? The childs innocent. If you didnt want her, you shouldnt have kept her. Think what her lifell be, passed from one care home to another?”
Annie only cried harder, shoulders shaking.
“What good are tears?” Natalie snapped. “Take your baby, feed her, and stop being foolish.”
“Maybe she was assaulted,” piped up Abigail, finally lowering her phone. “Or the fathers someone closea stepdad, perhaps?”
Lydia listened, guilt gnawing at her. Here she was, with a loving husband, doting parentsyet she still found reasons to sulk. And there was Annie, alone, with a child already unwanted. A girl whod grow up hardened by life, resenting a mother who drank or a man whod promised marriage and vanished at the first sign of a baby.
No balloons, no flowers. Nowhere to go.
Shame twisted in Lydias chest. “If you had somewhere to stay would you take her?”
Annie stared as if shed gone mad. “Of course. But thatll never happen.” She turned back to the wall, silent.
Two hours later, Lydia said firmly, “Youll stay in the dormitory. My mothers the warden. You can work as a cleanertheyll give you a room.”
“Oh!” Abigail looked up. “Ive a spare going-home outfit. My husband can bring itweve two anyway.”
“Ill bring clothes,” Natalie added. “My daughters old things. Washed and pressed. No use to usweve only grandsons now.”
By the next day, women from other wards were offering prams, blankets, a cot.
“Ive nothing to give,” fretted a young mother, “but Ill buy formula. Just in case.”
Annie sobbed openly nownot from despair, but the sheer weight of kindness. “Ill pay it back,” she mumbled.
The older women patted her shoulder. “Pass it on when you can.”
That night, Lydia lay awake, certain everything would turn out right. Annie would find her feet. Her daughter would grow up safe. What more could anyone need?
Funny, how life works. Sometimes, all it takes is one day to change everything. Makes you wonderhow many second chances do we miss because were too afraid to offer them?
