Child Bride
The year was 1969. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. Woodstock was already in the planning, and friends and loved ones were being killed in Vietnam. She gazed at the tiny pills in her hand. Two months along at the tender age of 15, she had no concept of what was growing inside her, and was happy to find an older friend who knew what to do. Or so she thought. She downed the pills and waited. And waited. And waited.
The girl's mother insisted on confronting the offending boy's parents. A weak offer of marriage resulted, to the horror of the young mother-to-be. This boy wasn't anyone she wanted to spend her life with...he was just an "acceptable" date while being grounded from seeing her usual friends. An act of rebellion that blew up in her face.
Two suitors vied for the expectant young waif, as she became the object of a local rivalry. One, a "bad boy," the other not so much. Unaware of the basic truths of relationships and drawn to excitement, she preferred the bad boy. But they fought and broke up often, sending her into the arms of the other.
When the back-and-forth got to be too much, she escaped to the South to stay with her older, already married sister...until "bad boy" came with his mother to fetch her and bring her back home so he could marry her. Seven months along and suffering with a pilonidal cyst, the ride back north was brutal. Halfway home, the cyst burst on its own, resulting in blessed relief.
Back home, more fighting led to the blossoming girl and the "good boy" eloping. They made it to the South Carolina border before she went into labor. The delivery was quick, but the less-than-five-pound baby had to stay in an incubator for five days, and the hospital bill had to be paid before the infant could be released. The new mother was released in three days. Their first stop found the young couple standing in front of a local Justice of the Peace, exchanging their vows, then heading to Florida to pick up the older sister. Stopping at the hospital on the way back to retrieve the baby, ..they were presented with a tiny, precious baby girl with a headful of dark hair. Smaller than her dolls had been.
Home again, our new little family was happy, until he left for boot camp and on to Vietnam.
That tiny baby, twenty years later with her first baby.
The girl's mother insisted on confronting the offending boy's parents. A weak offer of marriage resulted, to the horror of the young mother-to-be. This boy wasn't anyone she wanted to spend her life with...he was just an "acceptable" date while being grounded from seeing her usual friends. An act of rebellion that blew up in her face.
Two suitors vied for the expectant young waif, as she became the object of a local rivalry. One, a "bad boy," the other not so much. Unaware of the basic truths of relationships and drawn to excitement, she preferred the bad boy. But they fought and broke up often, sending her into the arms of the other.
When the back-and-forth got to be too much, she escaped to the South to stay with her older, already married sister...until "bad boy" came with his mother to fetch her and bring her back home so he could marry her. Seven months along and suffering with a pilonidal cyst, the ride back north was brutal. Halfway home, the cyst burst on its own, resulting in blessed relief.
Back home, more fighting led to the blossoming girl and the "good boy" eloping. They made it to the South Carolina border before she went into labor. The delivery was quick, but the less-than-five-pound baby had to stay in an incubator for five days, and the hospital bill had to be paid before the infant could be released. The new mother was released in three days. Their first stop found the young couple standing in front of a local Justice of the Peace, exchanging their vows, then heading to Florida to pick up the older sister. Stopping at the hospital on the way back to retrieve the baby, ..they were presented with a tiny, precious baby girl with a headful of dark hair. Smaller than her dolls had been.
Home again, our new little family was happy, until he left for boot camp and on to Vietnam.
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