Prologue
It was June, 1945 and World War II had raged for four long years. The war’s forbidding toll left no home unscathed and sacrifice had been the American way. As young men went to war women replaced them in the industrial factories that were grinding out the critically needed military equipment. Rosie the riveter became the poster girl for the effort.
One of those riveters Gertrude Faulring, was fighting another battle. And as she made her way to the lady’s lounge in the Curtis Wright Airplane Modification Factory, her heart ached. She was medically unable to bear children and had been praying for a baby to adopt for a long time. Her emotions spilled over into tears as she noticed a pregnant woman sitting near the corner of the room slumped over crying in despair. Compassion flooded her heart as she approached the woman and asked, “Why are you crying?”
Slowly looking up, the woman explained that her husband had died and she was now married to a man who was an alcoholic and a wretch of a person. She sobbed as she shared that her 15 year old daughter Marge was also pregnant. And when the young man who fathered Marge’s child learned that she was pregnant, he hastily returned to his home in Pennsylvania where another girl, also pregnant with his child, awaited.
“What am I going to do? Marge is due to have her baby in early October.” The woman anguished at the thought of bringing her baby into a home with an alcoholic husband, much less Marge’s baby.
Gert could barely get the words out, “I can’t have children. Would you consider letting my husband, John, and I adopt Marge’s baby?” She explained that, they were “Born Again Christians” and had been praying for a child to adopt. Gert also shared that her extended family were also Christians including her father, mother, brother, and sister-in-law.
From that fateful June, 1945 encounter it was arranged for Marge to live with Gert’s brother and sister-in-law, Edwin and Adeline Theon, until the baby was born. The adoption document contained two provisions: First, John and Gertrude Faulring would become the child’s parents with the birth certificate declaring them the biological mother and father. Second, Marge and her family would be permanently prohibited from contacting the Faulring’s or the child.
When Marge went to live with Ed and Adeline Theon, she quickly realized that they were wonderful Christian people. They treated Marge very tenderly never saying one disparaging word about her being 15 years old and pregnant. In 1945 it was a terrible social blemish on a family and shameful for a young girl to become pregnant out of wedlock. Adeline was a kind woman who flooded Marge with tender loving care. Her wonderful Christian spirit became such a testimony that Marge was led to know Adeline’s Jesus Christ as her own personal Savior.
However, when Marge went into labor she experienced a rude awaking. The nurses at the hospital treated her with contempt, ignoring her painful cries and responded with terse and cruel remarks, “Shame on you,” they said condescendingly, “you know what you did and now you’re suffering the consequences!” Marge felt totally abandoned as she lay in that delivery room. Indescribable fear and anguish filled her heart as she thought of her baby being taken from her and given to strangers. Questions raced through her mind, would they love, protect, and care for my baby like I would?
Her grief became almost unbearable upon hearing the first helpless cries of the baby boy she delivered, only to have him whisked away while the nurses blocked her strained attempts to see him. Marge longed to hold him, and at least say I love you and goodbye. However, within moments his cries faded and he was gone. And there, in the throes of her heartbreak, she vowed that someday before she died, she would reach out and lovingly hold the child she couldn’t hold today.
The only thing Marge was told, as she was given a bouquet of roses sent from the Faulrings, was that his name was going to be Bobby. Because she lived with the Theons while she was pregnant, no one in her family except her mother knew she had a baby that was adopted out, not even her older sister. Marge’s mother firmly demanded that she never say one word about having had a baby.
It was agonizing for Marge when she returned home and there was her baby brother, Jack, being loved and nurtured by her mother and older sister. Her heart wrenched in pain as she held Jack but could only imagine what her Bobby looked like and if someone was lovingly holding him. She wondered if her heartache would ever end.