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[ste_noni]

I was all set to do a really easy interview just now.  The couple was expecting a baby in February and so I was looking forward to admiring a cute new human in a baby stroller.  When I opened the door to the waiting room, I saw the couple was alone, but it's not that unusual for people to leave their kids with someone else.

I started the interview and said something like, "This should be easy since you two have a child" and the woman responded, "we had."  (Which is a totally normal way to respond in Spanish.)  She then handed me her daughter's birth certificate and death certificate and pictures of her daughter in the NICU.  She died after two month of some sort of congenital birth defect.

I almost immediately felt the tears well up behind my eyes.  I felt like such an ass because I was making her cry and I really didn't want to add to her sadness.  (As if I could, but you know what I mean.)  Anyway, I told her that I was a mom, and that while I couldn't understand what she was going through, I could imagine and that I was very sorry.  I'm not sure what else I could/should have said.

I guess I feel bad because I don't know this woman and her husband *at all* and I feel sort of like who am I to get all sad on her behalf.  Maybe it's nice to have a bureaucrat be a sympathetic person - I hope so.  Perhaps my reaction was stronger than I expected because of my last miscarriage.

Comments

[ste-noni.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Hopefully, I said the right thing, you know.