A young mother found a photo on the ground during an agricultural even in Melbourne. Little did she know that the photo she found was the last remaining memory that a mother had of her stillborn baby.
She knew how the mother felt
Monica Taylor visited the Royal Melbourne Show, and noticed a crumpled photograph on the ground. Once she picked up the photo, she realized that it was the photo of a stillborn baby, since she had delivered a stillborn child herself. Thus, she knew how the mother felt when she lost the photo of her baby.
She then decided to share the photo on Facebook, hoping that it would be seen by the photo’s owner. In just a few hours, the photo was shared over 7,000 times by different people all over Australia.
Eventually, she was contacted by someone claiming that the photo was theirs, but asked Monica to keep her identity anonymous.
A heartbreaking story
The mother met Monica at her home in Melbourne, and told her about the heartbreaking story behind the photo.
According to Monica, “She lost her baby in 2008 and she explained to me that she keeps the photo under her jacket where it sits over her heart. She took off her jacket and the photo slipped out that night. When I gave it back to her she put it straight back there.”
Monica shares that the mother told her that she could never repay her for what she has done to get the photo back to it’s owner. “She kept telling me how she could never repay me for what I had done to get the photo back to her,” adds Monica. “But for me it was reward enough knowing she didn’t have to go another day without seeing her lost daughter.”
Coping with loss
It’s always difficult for mothers to experience the loss of a child, and feelings of grief can manifest itself in different ways. Grieving can be different for everyone, but you should understand that other people know your feelings of loss, and that you’re not alone.
Some mothers, even if it’s painful, choose to have photos of their stillborn baby to act as a remembrance of the child that they never got the chance to take care of. Some hospitals would also offer to take handprints or footprints of the stillborn, while other hospitals ask the mother if she would like to have the child baptized or blessed in the hospital.
Other moms choose to spend some time with their stillborn child, others even tell a bedtime story right before they part with their baby. It might seem strange to someone looking from the outside, but people handle loss in many ways, and for a mother, doing these small things can mean the world to them.
READ: See how a baby ‘incompatible with life’ will make you cherish your babies more!
Sources: Littlethings.com, AU.News.Yahoo.com, AmericanPregnancy.org
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