JANITOR
Walking along the dusty road, thinking, well, probably lost half the readers today, only had two or three to begin with. Well that half molecule to the black hole, other half still orbiting. He thought of the grandma. The drama, so to speak at the abortion clinic in Bryan, Texas. Grandma on the outside of the fence, and the daughter and grand baby on the inside of the fence. Now Texas Grandma’s are known for being tough. You ask my daughter’s about strong woman, and they will have some stories about their grandma’s. This here, was a strong Texas Grandma. They go through a lot in Texas. They are some of the most beautiful woman in the world
The Texas Grandma from the book, Unplanned by Abby Johnson
Abby was the clinic director at Planned Parenthood when this moment took place. She is the one meeting the girl at the car.
As I approached the girl’s car, she got out on one side and the friend who had accompanied her got out on the other. Her mom was standing just outside the fence calling to her, obviously in real emotional pain. The rest of the family stood in a semicircle behind the mom. I stepped up beside the girl and put my hand on her back. “I’ll bring you around to the back entrance. It’ll be quicker that way.”
The girl didn’t answer. The mother’s voice, through her weeping, was filled with desperation. “You don’t have to do this,” she called, her voice anguished. “We want to help you. We can support you. You can live at home. We’ll give you money — whatever it takes! Don’t do this.” Her mother’s pleas were so heartbreaking that my heart was pounding with the tension.
And as I stood waiting, the back door of the car opened and a little girl got out — maybe two years old. It was the daughter of the girl who’d come in to have the abortion! And as she stepped up beside her mother, she saw her grandmother on the other side of the fence. “Hey, Mama!” she called innocently.
The grandmother wept even harder. Hanging on to the fence now as if to support herself, she cried out, “The baby you’re carrying will be just as beautiful as the daughter you already have! Just think if you had decided to abort her — think of all the joy she has brought into our lives. Imagine a world without her! Please – you don’t have to do this!”
It was the most intense moment I’ve ever witnessed between a mother and daughter……..
…..
I escorted her inside. “Are you all right? Do you need to talk about this first? Are you sure this is what you want to do? Because it sounds like you’d have a lot of support from your family if you were to keep the baby.”
I am not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t what I saw next. She shrugged it off. “Oh, that’s just my mom,” she said. “That’s how she is. I’m fine.”
…
The young woman had her abortion, spent her time recovering, and three or four hours after she arrived, she took her daughter and her friend and left.