Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Rock-a-Bye (plastic) Baby....

Shocking revelation during my morning ride. In the handicapped reserved seat was a middle aged woman, with a small, older baby carriage, and 3 beach bags filled with things. In her arm, she carefully cradled a baby wrapped in a blanket. The whole time, she was talking to the baby, "hi sweet pea, we're almost there. just sleep tight. almost there, honey. mommy loves you. yes, she does!" It was really cute. I didn't see the baby but I thought, this is a nice way to start my day, seeing a mom totally loving her newborn. So sweet. SO I THOUGHT.....

Before I exited the train, I smiled at her and made an effort to try to smile at her baby too. Instead, I was horrified. The baby was a pinkish plastic doll, wrapped in a baby blue and yellow blanket. I was in disbelief. I looked twice, three times....finally confirmed that this baby is fake! She was talking to a plastic doll the whole time. I didn't have much time before the door opened to examine the woman again to see if she just might be a little mental. She didn't look crazy, the only thing strange about her was the extremely old carriage and the 3 very large and full bags of things. I didn't think anything of it because maybe she is reusing an older carriage, and maybe she had to carry diapers, toys, clothing..etc. for the baby.

I am not sure what to think....soon after I got to work, I forgot about the incident. But, it was frightening because the way she was speaking to this 'baby" was as if she loved her dearly and that this child was the most important thing to her in this world.

Maybe she never recovered from a death of a child many years ago? I don't know..but this was a bit shocking and sad to see.

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