Pregnancy plight

WOMEN should not have to flee from their homeland like criminals. In the Eighties, my Irish lodger’s sister turned up on my doorstep.

She was pregnant and planned to give the baby up for adoption before returning home as if nothing had happened. I gave her sanctuary.

But when she held her newborn son in her arms, she knew she couldn’t give him up.

She didn’t even have a nappy for him, but the ladies at the local Catholic church rallied around to give her everything she needed.

After a few months, she was homesick and decided she would go back to Ireland and her family would just have to accept her child. When she phoned home, all hell broke loose, but she did return.

I like to think I played a small part in saving a young man who might never have known his own family.

MARY ROSE GILBERT, Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.