“Please take care of my daughter. It’s a request,” a poor woman begs a mother of twins one night. The following morning, she’s declared dead by the hospital authorities.
When Madyson Kemp was admitted to Atlanta Memorial Hospital two weeks before her due date, she expected her stay there to be lonely, with her only companions being the obnoxious odor of medicines and unwanted syringes that her doctor had prescribed for her pregnancy complications.
But to her relief, due to a shortage of single wards at the hospital, she’d been assigned to one with multiple occupancies, where she could at least get out of her boredom and converse with other patients. But that didn’t happen until two days later when two other women were moved into her room.
Mrs. Matthews, the older of the two, was in critical condition, and she was unconscious almost the entire time, with doctors constantly rushing to her side to monitor her blood pressure levels. The other woman, Carly Weiss, was pregnant, and Madyson was glad she had the company of another mommy-to-be.
“How far along are you in your pregnancy?” Madyson asked her one day, gently touching her baby bump with a smile on her face.
“It’s the sixth month for me,” Carly replied, with a faint smile covering almost all of her thin face riddled with dark circles and sunken cheeks. “The doctors are telling me my baby might be premature. What about you?”
“Oh, my due date is next week. My husband’s away on a business trip, but he’s said he’ll be here soon. I just hope everything goes well. Are you here by yourself?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Carly replied, this time her eyes welling up. “My husband didn’t want to raise the child, so he left me, and my parents had died long ago.”
“Don’t worry,” Madyson consoled her. “I’m sure you and your baby will be fine.”
“Well, I hope for that too,” Carly sobbed, wiping her tears away slowly. “I’m already 40, and my pregnancy is really risky for me. But it’s my last chance to know the joy of motherhood, and I want my baby to be safe and healthy.”
“Everything will be fine. Both you and your child will be alright,” Madyson assured her.
As time went on, Madyson became good friends with Carly, unlike the nurses who hated Carly for the simple reason that she was poor.
Carly, though weak and frail, was a pretty woman and quite skilled at the art of knitting. She never reacted to the sarcasm of the medical staff and rejoiced in each small happy moment, sometimes talking about her late mother and sometimes about how great of a mother she’d be to her child.
A few days later, when the doctors informed her that her tests were better than the last time and the baby would be born soon, she was over the moon. “Did you hear that, Madyson? I’ll become a mother soon. I’m so happy!” She squealed with delight.
“Yes, Carly! You’ll be an amazing mother!” Madyson assured her.
However, that night, Madyson was startled awake by the cries of medical personnel running in and out of the room, shouting Carly’s name. “Are you all right, Carly?” she mumbled as she slowly got up, only to realize Carly wasn’t in her bed.
“Oh, my goodness! Carly! Can you tell me where she is?” She inquired with a nurse who was looking for something near Carly’s bedside.
“She was rushed to the ICU due to a complication,” the nurse hurriedly explained. “I swear that woman seemed like trouble right when she came here!”
The nurse’s remark made Madyson’s heart sink. She sat in her bed, now wide awake, hoping Carly and her child were doing well.
A few minutes later, the room fell silent, and the medical staff had left. Carly was still not there. Madyson fell asleep waiting for her to return, then she had a weird dream. Carly was wearing a white sundress and smiling as she walked through a wheat field. “It’s time to say goodbye, Madyson,” she said. “It’s a pity we won’t see each other again. Please look after my daughter. It’s a request!”
“But Carly…” Madyson began speaking when she saw her turn around and disappear in the wheat fields. “Wait a minute, Carly! CARLY!!” Madyson screamed at the top of her lungs and woke up. Her water had broken, and she was clutching her stomach and moaning in pain.
“Mrs. Kemp! Get the OR ready,” a doctor instructed the nurse as she rushed to Madyson after hearing her loud cries. “FAST! WE NEED TO PERFORM THE DELIVERY RIGHT NOW!”
One hour later, Madyson gave birth to two healthy baby boys. She was unconscious for a while after the delivery, and when she woke up, a quick glance at the wall clock revealed it was around 4 a.m.
“My babies…are they fine?” she worriedly asked Dr. Carter as soon as she entered her room. “Your twins are absolutely fine, Mrs. Kemp,” Dr. Carter assured her. “We’ve informed your husband too, and he’ll be here soon.”
“What about Carly, doctor? Is she fine?”
“Carly Weiss?”
“Yes.”
“Sadly, Mrs. Kemp, Carly passed away after giving birth. Her daughter is in the NICU, and we are really hoping the child survives.”
“Oh, dear! That dream! Was it…” Madyson couldn’t stop crying when she heard about Carly’s death.
Later that day, when her husband Fred arrived, she decided to talk to him about Carly’s daughter’s adoption. Thankfully, when he learned about Carly’s story, he didn’t argue against the adoption and agreed to it. The paperwork began the next day, and a month later, Carly’s daughter was officially their child.
“Emma Kemp! What do you think, honey? Does this name suit our little daughter?” Fred asked, holding Carly’s baby in his arms as they walked out of the hospital.
“Of course, Fred. But I wish Carly was here to see how lovely her daughter is,” Madyson said, turning to face Emma, who was staring at her adoptive parents with her lovely eyes.
What can we learn from this story?
Everything happens in life for a reason. Madyson met Carly at the hospital because she was destined to become a mother of 3 and raise three beautiful children.
Families are built with love, not necessarily by blood. Madyson and Fred adopted Carly’s daughter and welcomed her wholeheartedly into their family.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a mother who sells her son’s unworn boots after his death to help a homeless woman and her child.
