In Omaha, Neb., 11 children ranging in age from 1 to 17 were legally abandoned recently under that state’s new safe haven law, according to an AP story.
The law, which went into effect in July, allows people to leave youngsters up to age 19 without fear of prosecution, the story says.
Nine of the recently abandoned children came from one family, and were left by their father at a hospital.
The law initially was intended to protect infants but was later expanded to include the word “child,” after much legislative debate, according to the story. And since that word’s not been specifically defined, it’s been interpreted to mean anyone under 19, the story says.
A health department spokesman there said that in nearly every case, the parents who abandoned their children “felt overwhelmed and had decided they didn’t want to be parents anymore.”
Really.
“It was the parents not wanting to continue the journey with their kids,” he said.
Houston, we have a problem.
Someone needs to make it clear to our citizenry that some things are irreversible.
Death is like that.
And so is parenthood.
That journey is a one-way trip.
I don’t know when we lost this knowledge, but, clearly we somehow left it behind with our turntables and dial phones.
It might be funny if it weren’t so awful.
It’s like the story of a former boss of mine, whose wife, in the 20-somethingth hour of labor, got out of bed and announced, “I’m going home. I don’t want to have a baby anymore.”
Nebraska was in the news for another reason recently, too, when it was recognized as home to America’s “oldest worker” — a 100-year-old journalist.
The Scripps Howard Foundation Wire story noted that Mildred Heath “has been getting the scoop” in her central Nebraska community for 85 years.
Health is the Overton, Neb., (population 659) correspondent for the Beacon-Observer, a weekly newspaper her family owns, the story says.
Heath won the 2008 America’s Oldest Worker award and an honorary membership in the National Press Club, which also turned 100 this year, the story notes.
Heath, the story says, puts in 30 hours a week “pursuing community news such as visits from out-of-town relatives, trips to Omaha and birthday parties.”
Born Mildred Nelson in Curtis, Neb., Heath started her journalism career in 1923 at age 15, running a Linotype machine which turned hot lead into lines of type for the printing press.
She married her high school sweetheart in 1927, the story says, and the couple bought a newspaper. For many years, they lived behind the paper’s office with their three daughters — all of whom she has outlived, according to the story. Her husband died in 1985 at age 80, the story says.
So, from now on, when I look around the newsroom here and I’m tempted to feel old — which is especially easy to do if I happen to pass a mirror — I’ll just think of Mildred, and I’ll feel like a spring chicken again.
Just shows to go ya — everything is relative.
Except parenthood.
That’s for certain and forever.
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