Every time I bring a parcel of pages down to Babu we end up on the same trails.  We start in one place, the topic of whatever entries I bring down to her, then we move on and end up in the same place.  I’ve written before about how, with the smallest occurrence, her life could have been drastically different but I know that if she could change one thing it would be not having siblings.  To this day she wishes that things could have been different for her mother.  It’s a terrible story.

When Babu’s mother (I realize I don’t know her name.  We always call her Babci.) was pregnant with Babu they had no money, therefore no doctor.  When the time came, they rushed to get the local doctor from him home and he came to deliver their baby.  Babu was born and all evidence suggests she was born healthy.  However, she was “not treated right” by the doctor and the understanding that Babu has is that he was a drunk.  Something happened – possibly the placenta was not removed?? – and she was never able to have any more children.

Babci wished she could have had more children and Babu laments not having siblings.  After reading today’s installment she set her pages down and said: “What an interesting life.”  Not sure if she was sarcastic I said:  “I think so!”

She said:

Well it’s a single.  It would be a lot different if I had brothers or sisters.  I think everyone should have them, learn to get along with people and have a little fight.  I had wonderful parents but I think I missed a lot not having brothers and sisters but it was my mother’s doctor that didn’t treat her right and she never had any more.

She says this every time she sets a packet of entries down on her kitchen table.  Something that happened the day she was born still stays very much with her.  It’s amazing how being poor can strip you of so many things.