Proof of Heaven

for Unwed Mothers, located next to Charlotte Memorial Hospital. All of
the girls there had code names, and because she loved American history,
my mother chose Virginia Dare—the name of the first baby born to
English settlers in the New World. Most of the girls just called her Dare.
At sixteen, she was the youngest girl there.
She told me that her daddy had been willing to do anything to help her
when he learned of her “predicament.” He was willing to pick up and
move the whole family if necessary. He had been unemployed for a
while, and bringing a new baby into the home would be a great financial
stress, not to mention all the other problems.
A close friend of his had even mentioned a doctor he knew of down in
Dillon, South Carolina, who could “fix things.” But her mother wouldn’t
hear of that.
Ann told me how she had looked up at the stars twinkling wildly in the
gusty winds of a newly arrived cold front on that frigid December night
in 1953—how she had walked across the empty streets under scattered
low, racing clouds. She had wanted this time to be alone, with just the
moon and stars and her soon-to-be-born child—me.
“The crescent moon hung low in the west. Brilliant Jupiter was just
rising, to watch over us all night. Richard loved science and astronomy,
and he later told me that Jupiter was at opposition that night, and would
not be as bright again for almost nine years. Over that time, much would
happen in our lives, including the births of two more children.
“But at the time I just thought how beautiful and bright the King of
Planets appeared, watching over us from above.”
As she entered the hospital foyer, a magical thought struck her. Girls
generally stayed in the Crittenden Home for two weeks after they
delivered their babies, then they’d go home and pick up their lives where
they’d left off. If she really delivered that night, she and I might be home
for Christmas—if they actually set her free at two weeks. What a perfect
miracle that would be: to bring me home by Christmas Day.
“Dr. Crawford was fresh from another delivery, and he looked awfully
tired,” Ann told me. He laid an ether-soaked gauze over her face to ease
the pain, so she was only semiconscious when finally, at 2:42 A.M., with