Barn Boy

I have a story to tell…

Sara was homeless. She had walked and walked for days and nights looking for a place to rest. She was hungry, tired and nine months pregnant. She stopped no longer able to continue her search for shelter. She looked behind her at how far she had come. Across the field was an old, abandoned barn. She managed to push out a few more steps to make it to fall down and rest. She began to feel tightness across her belly. She had no one and nowhere to go. She made a comfortable place to lay with some leaves and old rubbish she collected in the barn. She laid down on her make ship bed knowing the time was drawing near. With no way of keeping time, her body prepared itself for birth. Sara gave birth that day in an old, rugged barn.

This story actually begins with a love story of a young woman and a sailor. They were high school sweethearts in love. The young man joined the service to go and make a home for them. They made a promise to each other that they would spend the rest of their lives together. The young sailor went out to sea and the young woman waited for him to come home so they could get married and start their lives together. Shortly after he left for sea, the young woman found out she was pregnant. They wrote to each other often and yes she did share the news that he was going to be a father. His letters were filled with adventures and her letters were filled with joy of growing new life inside her.

The young woman had not shared this news with her family whom she lived with, her parents. She feared telling them because she didn’t want to face the disappointment she knew they would feel because she was unwed. But she had begun to show, and she could not keep it a secret anymore. Also the letters became few from her love until they eventually stopped. She knew she had to tell her parents the news that she was having a baby. Her father was very strict, and she was so afraid.

Her father put her out of her home with nowhere to go. He was furious. The young woman stayed with neighbors, friends, and anywhere she could until her welcome ran out. Sadly, she had no way of knowing if her love had written because her journey had taken her so far from home to an old broken down abandoned barn.

Sara gave birth to a baby boy. She used whatever she could find in that old barn to secure herself and her new baby. She wrapped him in her only sweater she held on to for the cold nights and then she laid down to rest. There was an auction later that day to sell the land that this old barn resided. She heard footsteps coming toward the barn. She looked thru the dusty window and it was a man and a woman. She held her breath not knowing what to do so she laid her baby boy on the pile she used for a bed, and she hid behind a stack of old debris in the barn. A man came in and saw the newborn. He reached down and picked up the baby. He took a quick sweep of the barn looking to see if he could see anyone else, wondering who on earth left this baby. Sara peeping thru the trash stayed hidden hoping this was a chance for her baby to have a home from the harsh elements of being homeless she was suffering. Her heart pounding with fear and anxiety wanting so desperately to believe that these were good folks and that they would help her baby. The man yelled out to the woman outside the barn to come and see what he found. The woman gently took the baby from him and looked at the baby with instant love. Tears started to flow down Sara's face. She said her private goodbye and decided now that her baby boy was safe, she was going to lay down and die.

But she woke up the next day and in spite of much needed medical attention, Sara survived the night to see another day. She left the barn walking along the highway weak and dehydrated; she collapsed. She woke up in the hospital. She called for a nurse and asked how did she get there and she went on to say she couldn’t afford to stay. The nurse reassured her it was ok and to please rest. Sara was afraid that questions would eventually be asked about the pregnancy and the visible proof she had a baby, so she sneaked out of the hospital and fled.

Sara found a shelter, healed and regained her strength. For years she worked odd jobs enough to get by living in shelters, cheap motels and sometimes in the park when the weather was good. She was able to save money on those days.

One day I came home from college, my parents were ragging on me about cleaning out old stuff in my room. So I went on and went thru some stuff. I took some things to the attic. I came across an old box with my name on it and inside was some baby photos and a really old funky looking sweater. I pulled the box down to look thru the photos some more. I wondered why they were tucked away in the attic and not with the other photos displayed in the house. I got distracted by my friends that had come over to see me while I was home from school, so I left the box on my bed and headed out with friends. When I returned, the newly hired housekeeper was sitting in the floor of my room weeping. I entered the room slowly to move closer to her. She was holding on tightly to that old sweater that was in the box. I took a deep breath and asked her what was wrong and what was she doing. She looked at me with a well of tears...

She said, "I never stopped thinking of you and I always wondered every day if you were safe and loved".

I fell to the ground with her. I knew I was adopted but no one could give me any information to the whereabouts of my biological mother or father because no one had it. At that moment. I didn’t know what to say.

She began telling me her story of how I was born in a barn.