A Letter from the Future
Dear Mom,
Can you believe it's 2023 already? I'm still writing 22 on nearly everything. Seems like yesterday I was sitting in the first grade celebrating the century change! I know I haven't really chatted since Christmas. Sorry. Anyway, I have some difficult news and I really didn't want to call and talk face-to-face.
Ted has had a promotion, and I should be up for a hefty raise this year if I keep putting in those crazy hours. You know how I work at it. Yes, we're still struggling with the bills. Timmy's been "OK" at kindergarten, although he complains about going. But then he wasn't happy about day care either, so what can I do? He's been a real problem, Mom. He's a good kid, but quite honestly he's an unfair burden at this time in our lives. Ted and I have talked this through and through and finally made a choice. Plenty of other families have made it and are much better off.
Our pastor is supportive and says hard decisions sometimes are necessary. The family is a "system" and the demands of one member shouldn't be allowed to ruin the whole. He told us to be prayerful, consider ALL the factors and do what is right to make the family work. He says that even though he probably wouldn't do it himself, the decision really is ours. He was kind enough to refer us to a children's clinic near here, so at least that part's easy.
I'm not an uncaring mother. I do feel sorry for the little guy. I think he overheard Ted and I talking about "it" the other night. I turned around and saw him standing at the bottom step in his pj's and the little bear you gave him under his arm and his eyes sort of welling up. Mom, the way he looked at me just about broke my heart. But I honestly believe this is better for Timmy, too. It's not fair to force him to live in a family that can't give him the time and attention he deserves. And PLEASE don't give me the kind of grief Grandma gave you over your abortions. It is the same thing, you know.
We've told him he's just going in for a vaccination. Anyway, they say the termination procedure is painless. I guess it's just as well you haven't seen that much of him.
Love to Dad,
Sue
(source: ORTL newsletter, January 1991)
Pam's comments:
In a woman's personal battle with equal rights,
she must be careful not to allow her conscience to be slowly seared with self promotion
only. The above letter is fiction, but with talk of "right to die,"
euthanasia, and abortion, are we so blind we cannot see it coming?
I am a mother and a nurse, and I have seen
people die many times, some after a great deal of suffering. My heart breaks when a
mother loses a child in childbirth or after having loved a child for many years. I
have felt the loss of loved ones of my own. I cannot help but believe that in dying
their "own" death, not aided by outside interference, that their life's purpose
was fulfilled, that whatever pain they suffered was for their own reasons and edification.