Thanksgiving tale: Woman in labor insists on being served

[Louisiana1976]

ANCHORAGE — On a day when hundreds flocked to the Central Lutheran Church in Fairview for all the Thanksgiving fixings, one woman in line stood out in more ways than one: She was pregnant, in labor, and wasn't leaving without her turkey.

A neighbor had brought her Monday evening to the annual Thanksgiving Blessing, as the big pre-holiday giveaway organized by the Food Bank of Alaska and area churches is known. People line up at churches all over town for yams, cranberry sauce, potatoes, apples, stuffing, gravy mix, pie, rolls, vegetables, and a turkey and roaster -- everything they need for a feast at home.

Alan Budahl, the incoming executive director of Lutheran Social Services, was in his first day on his new job when a flustered man came up to him.

"Hey I have my neighbor," the man told Budahl. "She's in labor, and she's in the line and she won't go to the hospital until she gets her food because she needs her Thanksgiving basket."

snip

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/79579.html?storylink=omni_popular

[redwitch]

1. Sarah is that you?

:-)

[HopeHoops]

2. "Oh, there's another one. Could you get that for me?"

Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" - right before the "Every Sperm is Sacred" song.

[EOTE]

3. Couldn't you just imagine that?

"You get back in there, Trans-Am. You're not coming out until mama gets her stuffing! And then we've got a long flight to North Dakota. I'll be damned if I'm giving birth to another kid in Alaska. How cliched would that be?"

[Old Codger]

4. LOL

My first thought exactly, something in the air up there

[JVS]

5. Does the state motto there say something about having more important things to do than heeding the..

call of labor?

[redwitch]

7. "Alaska: Where women are strong and too, also,babies can wait

until we're good and ready." You betcha!

[Raschel]

10. Ya just gotta learn to hold it in.

[JVS]

13. Ahh. There we go. Alaska: The Baby-rententive state

[rocktivity]

6. Leave her alone--cravings during pregancy aren't uncommon.

rocktivity

[enlightenment]

8. This was about a food basket - not a meal for herself.

Apparently, she believed she needed that food basket - who is to say how much?

[dugaresa]

9. it isn't funny, it is sad. the woman's family clearly must need the food or else she wouldn't have

put herself in this situation.

she had another child with her, she was doing this to feed that child and her husband.

this is just so sad to me.

[etherealtruth]

11. I'm with you ....

Are we missing something? I can't find any humor in anyone feeling desperate enough to stand in line for a food basket while in labor .... ?

[pitohui]

20. her husband?

where do you see evidence of a husband in this story?

a husband would have gotten off his hind legs and fetched the damn food for her, instead, a neighbor man had to do this

[dugaresa]

husband or boyfriend or whoever might have been at work

or perhaps unavailable which makes it worse.

[EFerrari]

24. It's not funny.

:(

[Deja Q]

33. Very sad, I agree.

Still, it won't stop me from saying that I had to read the OP's subject line twice because it sounded like she wanted to be served as a replacement for the turkey. :blush:

[FarCenter]

12. If she can't feed the kid she has, why is she having another one?

[etherealtruth]

14. Funny story ...

A young co worker of mine got pregnant, she found out on a Monday .... she and her husband were thrilled ... he had a good job and they were in a position where they could afford for her to take a little time off work .... they were thrilled .... Her husband lost his job that Friday. On second thought, the story is not at all funny.

Sometimes bad things happen ... I would rather try to help people through rough times ... I'll leave the judgments to those that have achieved perfection.

[FarCenter]

15. Nevertheless, having a kid is a 200 to 300 thousand dollar committment

And has to be undertaken with a full understanding of the couples finacial prospects over the next 20 years. I hope your coworker has good medical and maternity benefits so she can work through her pregnancy and resume work soon thereafter.

[etherealtruth]

17. No, our benefits "suck"

My point (especially during economic times like these) circumstances change. I have three children .... I truly understand the cost of raising children .... "why would someone have another child when they can't feed the one they have?" My guess is that they did not know they wouldn't be able to care for their family.

[onenote]

16. I'll defer from making judgments about you since I don't know anything about you

other than the fact that you seem quite willing to make judgments about complete strangers of whom you know next to nothing.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[XanaDUer]

19. Because shit happens.

Nt.

[pitohui]

23. of course but "shit happens" more often to slobs who don't use birth control

it's a sad story but not just sad for her, it's sad for the children that will be born into this situation and raised in the same household where a woman is already either too stupid, too careless, or too superstitious to use the very simple, safe birth control that we have available today

there's almost no hope for them to have a decent education or a well-developed intelligence or much of a future at all

and that's where too many babies are coming from -- the "shit happens" crowd

everyone who eats shits, but everyone who fucks DOESN'T have to create an innocent life, we have the technology, and only the extremely stupid and the extremely superstitious don't understand this...

be honest, "shit happens" wouldn't be good enough for your daughter, you would expect more, you would expect good decision making for your own daughter or your own wife, it is a form of contempt to look at the poor and say "oh well they are idiots who can't be expected to plan for the future shit happens"

you feel the contempt i feel, i'm just honest abt it

[XanaDUer]

25. Ahem

Some of the greatest geniuses in history came from poor, religious, large families. How the fuck do you know this woman's circumstances? You know nothing, and you are ranting like a heartless right-winger here.

No, I don't feel "contempt" for this poor woman.

So, don't put words in my mouth.


EDIT :Typo

[EFerrari]

26. You know it is possible to be using birth control and still conceive, right?

[mamaleah]

31. Amazing so many people do not know that.

Very few people use bc perfectly. And it's "high" success rate is only when used perfectly.

[KitSileya]

44. Not to mention, it's been 9 month since it was conceived.

Their situation in March may have been totally different from what it is now in November. Loss of job/jobs, coupled with the increased expenses of a second child, may have quickly led them to being so desperate a food basket is of vital importance. After all, even Suze Orman recommends that you have 8 months living expenses stashed away - which if she had any complications during pregnancy would have flown out faster.

[EFerrari]

45. That's a good point.

Geeze, who has nine months of living expenses stashed away. Not too many people I know.

[lildreamer316]

46. *raised hand* I'm one of those right here.

..and partly because of knowing that fact, I was completely UNAWARE that I was pregnant until I was FIVE MONTHS along.
Seriously, I had no major tells. Fortunately, I had avoided overconsuming alcohol and my baby was perfectly healthy.

[EFerrari]

48. Yikes. My son is 32. I knew about 30 seconds after I conceived.

And, it was a difficult decision to continue that pregnancy because we were already struggling with one in a bad economy.

[wicked stepsister]

36. you're not being honest, you're being unncessarily cruel

Show a little compassion. We have NO idea what this woman's situation is. I agree that she was probably in need of the food, and sometimes, you do what you have to do. I'm assuming you've never been in a "shit happens" position or you'd be a little more sympathetic.

Happy Thanksgiving, by the way.

[Ellen Forradalom]

43. This child is her second

Two children is the culturally-approved middle-class family size. :/

[redwitch]

21. I feel bad that I made fun of her.

I didn't read all the way through and I thought she wanted to eat then. I was astounded at that as I have been in labor myself and really was not thinking of food at that time. Sad that she had no one who could stand in line for her. Sorry for my rush to humor. :-(

[XanaDUer]

22. No problem

:hug:

This is a sad story.

[dugaresa]

27. don't feel bad, at first glance it seems really oddball until you read

futher into the story.

[Ellen Forradalom]

38. I'm glad you reflected.

I too have rushed to judge and regretted it. An all-too-human mistake.

:pals:

[varelse]

28. Poverty is about as funny as pancreatic cancer

and until we begin to take it seriously, has about the same prognosis. What a soulsick, sad, indifferent and greed-driven world we are creating together :(

[etherealtruth]

29. Amazing

Who would have thought that a thread that began by mocking a poor woman's seemingly desperate attempt to secure food for Thanksgiving her family (granted a later post of regret was made) could go downhill from there?

I for one am truly grateful that my children and I have always had adequate food and shelter .... we've done without some wants ....but, never have we done without needs being met. Some of the sentiments expressed in this thread disgust me.

[Lyric]

30. People in a position of privilege often speak out of their asses.

Poor-bashing is America's second-favorite sport, right behind fat-bashing.

[Ellen Forradalom]

39. Woman-bashing is right up there too

jostling for a position on the podium.

[Ellen Forradalom]

32. Last I checked, food was essential for human life

Therefore tends to be high on the list of people's priorities. She wasn't in line for a free TV.

I see a lot of misogyny in this thread. "Stupid woman, wanting food. What is wrong with her?"

[Ellen Forradalom]

34. The more I read this thread

the more I don't like it. It's a misogyny and class war free-for-all. Is this what our party has become? That's a rhetorical question. Don't answer that.

I went to work the day my son was born. Does that make me a bad, stupid mom too? No, no one looked askance at that at the time, because I'm one of the "good" middle class people who performs that highly-productive activity of shuffling zeroes and ones.

People always prioritize food first. Has anyone posting here survived true famine conditions, the kind induced by complete harvest failures or sieges? What happens to the young, old, infirm, not to mention pets, isn't pretty. The woman in question's poverty isn't as extreme, therefore her response to it isn't either, but it appears to be enough for her to prioritize getting food first. Maybe we should ask ourselves why that is, instead of calling her a stupid brood mare.

On edit: correct demonstrative pronoun.

[Lyric]

35. +1

As I said before, it's awfully easy to demonize and slander poor people when you're sitting in a comfy chair in a suburban house and living a life in which your biggest worry is that your retirement nest egg might shrink some more. Meanwhile, the poor shuffle aimlessly from food bank to church to soup kitchen, and are too terrified about how they'll survive next WEEK to worry much about retirement. Poor people don't get to retire. They work until their legs, arms, and backs won't hold them up anymore, and then pray to god that some of those children they weren't ethically "supposed" to have can afford to take care of them until they die.

[Bluebear]

37. The baby weighed in at 14 pounds, 3 ounces at .99 per pound.

[juno jones]

40. Have some damn charity people.

It's the end of the month, and FS doen't stretch far enough to buy turkey and trimmings for a special meal at the best of times. She probably wanted to make sure the rest of her family was fed.

Geesus, it's not like she was holding junior in so she could be first in line at the fucking Best Buy doorbuster sale.

[asdjrocky]

41. The first few replies to this absolutely shocked me.

What in the hell is wrong with you fucking people? She's not lining up for a free fucking box of KFC, this woman needs food.

You people disgust me. Spend some time with someone who is homeless and hungry, and grow the fuck up.

[carlyhippy]

42. well, it was good of them to move her to the front of the line

hopefully someone took that food to her house and put in the freezer and didn't let it sit out and ruin.

[Dead_Parrot]

47. Hey everybody! Look at the funny poor woman!

Jeez. :eyes: