Fostering Babies brings JOY and HEARTACHE

Babies bring JOY and HEARTACHE

When my mother and two sisters were teenagers in the early 40s, her parents fostered three children from the Children's Aid Society. There were three precious boys and my mother still gets emotional when she talks about them. 

Many single mothers gave up their babies.

If the father walked away, women had few options.

There was no help like welfare and many young mothers couldn't afford to raise a child. There was a stigma if a child was from a broken home and mothers wanted their babies to grow up in a "normal" two-parent home. 

The first foster baby was named Teddy and they cared for him for a only a short time. Mom estimates he lived with them for a month. One day with no warning , a woman knocked on the door. She said she was from the Children's Aid and she took baby Teddy away and he was put up for adoption. Just like that he was gone and they never saw him or heard what happened to him.  His grandmother sent him a Valentine's Day card. It was sad because he was already gone. She didn't even know that her teenage daughter had put Teddy up for adoption. I don't think we have any pictures of Teddy.

This was Betty and Lenny Rembialkowski
probably taken around 1941. When
Betty had Lenny she wasn't married, however eventually
she married, took Lenny back and the man
adopted Lenny as his son. They took his last name
 and he became Lenny Cooper.

The next little guy was named Lenny. He was born prematurely to a woman who was about 30 years old.

Many babies didn't survive prematurity, 

but Lenny was a fighter!

Doctors placed him in an oxygen tank. In those days they didn't know to protect 

his eyes. 

It cost him his sight, 

but not his spirit!

My kind grandmother, Sadie, selected him from all the children at the Children's Aid Society. This cross-eyed little 9-month-old boy whose eyes rolled around and around looked pathetic sitting quietly in his crib. He needed a haircut and a bath.

Mum and Daddy took him in and everyone loved that little guy. Eventually his mother met a nice man in the service. Betty married him and took Lenny back. I'm told that even after his family moved down south, Lenny returned to work in the summers. He sold fruit at a fruit stand for a neighbor in Beaver Falls.

Lenny recently passed away but Mom always sent him birthday and Christmas cards.

The last foster baby was Jackie Leonard.

Every time Mom talks about Jackie, she ends up in tears.

Little Jackie Leonard. He was a foster child and tragically died at age 4. This was "the blacksmith shop," when "Daddy" (David Mudie) bought it and it became "Daddy's workshop". The paint, which might say "White Furniture" was an advertisement. They paid Daddy $50.00 a year to advertise on their garage/workshop. Daddy liked that $50.00 Also, they had lots of peach trees growing.YUMMY. Mum (Sadie Mudie) grew a lot of her own food. She was a good cook who canned foods, made homemade donuts, soups etc.

Foster child "Jackie Leonard," a sweet boy who was only 4 years old when he died. My mother was a teenager when "little Jackie" died after a fall and head injury. My mother to this day wells up in tears when she talks about him.  

The story she told was he was playing at a construction site. I think people were building a house. He fell and hit his head. Buffy thought they were trying to do surgery when he died that night in a hospital. 

REST IN PEACE JACKIE!

Jackie probably died around 1941 about 75 years ago and Mom still sheds tears for him. I have tried to find records on him but I have been unsuccessful. His mother was Thelma Leonard and she worked at Kaufmann's Department Store downtown.