It was a Sunday morning when I got a phone call from Bernadette, a young mother I knew well who had been receiving lots of help from our centre. She was crying down the phone.
“What’s the matter” I asked afraid that there was something wrong with the baby.
She could not get the words out and I was very worried something had happened to her child. “Its a year ago today” she blurted out.
Suddenly I realised that it was a year ago that day when I had first met her outside the abortuary.
Thankfully she now had a beautiful little baby boy and had come to our centre for help instead of having the abortion that day. So what on earth could be the matter?
“ I feel so ashamed, so bad” she told me “ I went to the abortion clinic a year ago this day, I’ve been awake all night just looking at my son”.
I knew how precious he was to her and the guilt she was feeling about that day.
I remembered when I met Bernadette outside the clinic. I knew from the moment I first started talking to her that she was in a real desperate situation. She told me she had been feeling very sick with her pregnancy and had lost her job because of it. Her landlord had told her that she had to leave the house by Monday morning because she had no money to pay the rent. Her boyfriend had told her to go and have the abortion, and that there was little he could do to help her. Alone and helpless with no one to turn to for help reluctantly she made her way to the abortuary.
When I met her, I spoke to her about God and she told me she believed and agreed abortion was wrong. I told her about the help at our centre and immediately she phoned her boyfriend and I heard her telling him “I can't do this, abortion is wrong, it’s a life, its our child”.
Then she put me on the phone to her boyfriend and I explained that our centre would help her. Bernadette told me how much she really wanted the baby but she did not know what to do in her situation. She gave me her phone number.
She arrived at our centre for an appointment a few days later and after counselling our centre gave her emergency accommodation and provided her with the help she needed.
“Don’t worry any more about that day” I told her “You were in a desperate situation but you did the right thing, and you now have a beautiful baby boy. I’m sure God led you that day to meet us and get all the help you needed from our centre”.
Bernadette is very grateful for our help and it was great to celebrate her son’s first birthday with her recently.
Lorraine Coyne
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