I think my
twin was stolen at birth
My dad was at work
when my mom went into labor. My great-grandparents
come over to drive mom to the hospital in
Greenfield, IN. On the way there my mom’s water
broke. She remembers waking up at the hospital and
seeing an umbilical cord lying across her stomach.
She asked "Where is
my baby?" fearing this baby had died, too. She'd had
miscarriage a year prior while in her third month
(May 1969).
Suddenly her water
broke again and I was born. My mother is a sweet
woman that just happens to be illiterate and I truly
believe she was taken advantage of.
I found out that our
family doctor had a student doctor working with him
at that time. That student doctor stopped his
studies shortly.
My mom was told
during her pregnancy that she was going to have
twins. The doctor even made jokes to her about
taking one of the babies if it were a boy. He had
three girls and never got his boy.
After I was born
they cleaned me up and brought me back to my mom
with a pink bow in my hair. Mom asked "Why is there
a pink bow in my baby boy’s hair?" They just laughed
and said that it was a mistake...me being such a
pretty baby and all. Oddly enough, I grew up to be
gay.
The doctor never
would see me growing up. He would always just tell
my mom to make sure I drank plenty of water and that
was it. One time mom made an appointment for me and
while we were sitting in the waiting room we were
told that the doctor wasn't there, but we both saw
him and knew that they were lying.
As a teenager, and
still today, people tell me that I looking just like
someone else. People would even say to me "Hey John,
how are you doing?" (my name is Steven) I even found
out John's last name, which just happened to be the
same name as the student that delivered me.
I went to the
Hancock County court house to see if their might be
a birth or death certificate in case there was a
stillbirth. There was not, and I was told that if a
baby was born dead there didn't have to be one.
Also if there was an
adoption of some sort there wouldn't have to be one
either...illegal maybe?
I found John a few
months ago and called him. I told him everything. He
was not really surprised to hear all this;
considering he was told many times that he had a
twin roaming around. His birth date is a year and a
half before mine. People tell me all kinds of
stories that used to go on in hospitals in the 1970s
and beyond. People switching and stealing babies and
replacing their dead babies with stolen ones.
John said he would
look into it. He also said that he knows of a Dr. M
but that he was no relation to him. We still have
each other's info but he never got back to me on
that subject.
Could he be my twin?
Is the pink bow a sign that my twin was a girl? I
don't know if I will ever know the truth. My heart
hurts so badly for the truth.
Steven Gillam
Indianapolis, IN
