(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "F" is for "foster parent")
The following content might remind you of a well-known story. What’s the story?
Today I’d like to tell you about a little-known historical figure, Edna Schneiderwegen.
You think you have it tough; consider Edna’s position. Her husband, who was rarely sober, went off one day and, in the grand tradition of so many other helpmeets, just didn’t come back.
She suddenly was a single mom, with a baby, Eustace, and almost no income. She desperately tried to find a part-time job and her housework was left undone. Neighbors, perhaps trying to be helpful, reported her situation to the DCF, the Department of Children and Families.
The DCF folks decided Eustace would be better off with a foster parent so they told Edna to get his things packed because they’d be picking him up on the following morning.
She was miserable. She loved her child and would do almost anything to keep him with her. Early the next morning, just at daybreak, she took the baby’s basket and placed Eustace in it.
It happened that a river flowed through that area a block or so from her house. Along its banks there was a lot of vegetation – grass, bushes, etc. – so she placed the basket, Eustace ensconced within, on the bank of the river. Luckily it promised to be a warm, fine day.
She had made up a story for the Department of Children: her formerly long-lost husband, a ne’er-do-well of the first order, had come during the night and had taken the baby. She had no idea where he, or they, might now be. She thought, a bit over-optimistically, that the DCF types would then give up and forget about it so she could go pick up Eustace and bring him home.
Coincidentally, and it was a huge coincidence, Fran Garner and a few friends were jogging along the path next to the lake that morning, as they did most mornings. What was coincidental was that Mrs. Garner was the wife of the head of the DCF. When she saw Eustace in the basket she was at first deeply moved at the thought that some desperate mother had been forced to place her offspring in such a place.
But then, when she saw what a cute little nipper the baby was, she thought that she’d talk her husband into allowing her to be a foster parent for the child. Later she might even be able to adopt him.
Today, of course, we know that as our story evolved the little tyke grew up to be a strong, upstanding young man, and ultimately a great leader.
(The answer will be posted Saturday.)
