I have four siblings, all older than I, two now deceased. In 1939, when my mother was 40, she gave birth to a girl, who died two days later.
She told me that the doctors told her not to try to have another baby. They said it could result in her death or the death of the child. She was overweight and had already given birth to five biological children. And this was 1939. Many more women died in childbirth than now.
But she was determined to have one more child. She liked raising babies and did not like her husband. Whenever they talked to each other, it was an argument. I am amazed that they had sex six times.
Anyway, she proceeded to have the fifth living child in 1940. That was yours truly. Healthy and more or less normal, depending on one’s definition of “normal.”
So if the fifth child had not died in 1939, I would not be sending you this email.
From reader Cathie Behrend:
If Hitler had gotten into his art school of choice, history might have been different.
From reader Len Lear:
I have four siblings, all older than I, two now deceased. In 1939, when my mother was 40, she gave birth to a girl, who died two days later.
She told me that the doctors told her not to try to have another baby. They said it could result in her death or the death of the child. She was overweight and had already given birth to five biological children. And this was 1939. Many more women died in childbirth than now.
But she was determined to have one more child. She liked raising babies and did not like her husband. Whenever they talked to each other, it was an argument. I am amazed that they had sex six times.
Anyway, she proceeded to have the fifth living child in 1940. That was yours truly. Healthy and more or less normal, depending on one’s definition of “normal.”
So if the fifth child had not died in 1939, I would not be sending you this email.
As they say, there but for the grace of G-d go the two of us...and everyone else too!
Henry Louis Gates Jr. would be proud of you.