Before my Mom had me there was another baby girl that didn't make it.
Before me my Mom & Dad were having their first child. Her name was to be Laurie and she would have been born in about '58. I say about as I didn't find any records in Mom & Dad's things so I only have my memories of the story Mom told me.
When Mom was carrying Laurie she became ill with toxemia. Something dangerous to both baby and mother.
Mom said Laurie had been active inside her up until two days prior to going into labour. She told her doctor the baby had stopped moving but that was in about 1958. Things were lots different back then.
A few days later Mom went into labour in Belleville Hospital. She went through all the pain and emotions of giving birth... but there was something wrong. She could tell my the looks on the staffs and doctors face. Laurie was still born but had also died when Mom had said she felt her stop moving so there was that as well. She asked to see her baby even though she was gone and then learned that not only had she passed but was terribly disfigured from the effects of the toxemia and two days of decomposition.
Mom was returned to her shared room but instead of having her baby she had none. The room was full of Mother's and babies with Father's and family visiting. My heart breaks for her having to have gone through that. The pain in her voice as she spoke about it was visceral. Certainly they could have/should have moved her to another room in the hospital for after care.
Somewhere at the back of the Northbrook Cemetery is an unmarked grave for a little girl who was angel born.
