The Hard Choice

Sometimes writing these prompts, I ease into subjects about which I don't have first hand knowledge. I have done that on this blog. I have never been a mother and I have never suffered a mental illness but like so many others I have read the stories about these cases gone terribly wrong. I thought instead of writing something horrific, that I would write a small scene about an ill mom doing the devastatingly courageous act of giving her child up and getting help. So here is day 18 of the 31 day writing challenge.

Prompt (Random First Line): The pink glove lay on the ground, almost covered

The pink glove lay on the ground, almost covered by snow.  Carrie dug the glove out and held the tiny, fuzzy glove in her hand.  She couldn’t believe that this was all she had left.  She sank to the ground and brought the glove to her face, inhaling the lingering scent of her baby girl.  Layla was gone she was really gone.  Carrie knew she had done the right thing that her life was far too unstable to properly raise a two year old but that didn’t keep her heart from breaking.  Oblivious to the cold, she held that only physical reminder she had and cried.  She cried for everything that she would miss.  Staggering to her feet, she gathered her bags and put them in the car. It was time for her to get on the road.  Her only hope was that with a lot of hard work on her part, she might one day be reunited with her baby girl.  Starting the engine, she headed to the psychiatric hospital that her parents had found for her.  They had offered to be here with her during all of this and to drive her to the hospital but Carrie felt like this was important for her to do on her own.  What everyone in her life had written off, as the baby blues had been much more.  The final straw had been when Carrie began to think about harming Layla.  Thankfully, she hadn’t acted on it but as soon as she had a lucid moment, she had called her parents for help.  Signing her daughter over to her sister and brother-in-law hadn’t been a tough decision; she knew they would love her unconditionally.  What was hard was convincing her family never to bring Layla to see her in the hospital.  She wanted her baby girl to have a normal happy childhood and that wouldn’t happen if she were constantly drug to the mental hospital to visit her.  She would make contact with her child, if and only if, she knew she was no longer a danger to her or to anyone else.  Pulling up to the hospital, she was actually relieved to see her parents waiting for her. Her mother grabbed her and hugged her tightly, while her dad got her things out of the car.  Walking her in, they escorted her to her new home.