Can I be in your family?

When I was nine months pregnant with my second child, I got a phone call from a woman across the country who introduced herself and explained that she had advanced cancer and was dying. She told me that she had been referred to me, knew I was pregnant and asked if it would be okay to become part of our family, indicating she wanted to “be the baby” about to be delivered.

She further explained that we had a mutual friend and heard that my husband was a musician. She told me that she herself was an artist, ran a school in Los Angeles, and thought that this would be a good fit.

I was definitely weirded out by that call, but she seemed sincere so I half- heartedly replied, “Yeah… okay, I guess so”.

The woman excitedly said, “Great! I’m sending you a check for the baby’s savings account (which she did), I have to turn over the school to someone who I am now training and then finalize a few other things. I’ll be in touch.”

A couple weeks later, when I was near the end of the 9th month, the woman called again. She said, “Okay. I have wrapped everything up. I’ve turned over the school, trained my replacement there, and everything is now all set to go.”

That night the old woman passed away and the next morning I delivered my new baby girl.

About 4 years later, I was in Los Angeles on a business trip and decided to take my daughter along with me and visit that school the woman said she had owned.

We entered the school together, and as we were walking down the hallway, my daughter was looking all around and remarked, “Mmm… They painted the place.”

~ JER