1. Choice

Two women screamed in pain in two very different birthing rooms. One was at a private hospital in a VIP theatre while the other woman was giving birth in a comfortable country house built like a veritable palace. She was surrounded by the best doctor's money could afford. With each scream and each push they both came closer and closer to bringing into the world the most precious thing in the world to each of them. Hours later each respective woman gave birth to their respective child. Both children were beautiful baby girls but alas only one was born hale and healthy while the other died a few seconds after her mother slipped into unconsciousness due to exhaustion. But even if one woman held a healthy baby in her arms she cried bitterly as if her world was at an end. "What name will you give her?" a woman who stood in the room asked from the shadows.

"How can I name her?" the woman asked her heart breaking. She could barely speak let alone breathe as she cried. "She will die." She didn't have to expound on her words because they both already knew what she spoke of.

"She is still your daughter no matter her fate," the woman reminded gently moving forward to sit on the bed.

"I love her," she cried, "Dear Lord how I love her. She is my world. Now I know why they say a child is like having your heart beating outside your chest." The woman leaned forward and held the woman's hand. The new mother looked at the woman all her pain reflected in her eyes and said, "Her name is …..," she did not say the name out loud. She said it in her heart. She leaned back placing her child gently at the crook of her arm and promptly drifted to sleep. Only the woman who sat on the bed next to her watching the sad scene saw the silent tears that spilled down the sleeping woman's face.

"If the pain doesn't kill you it will make you stronger. Own your pain my dear and bury your weakness. That is the only way to survive. You are the only person in this world who is not allowed to be weak," the woman whispered picking up the baby who for some reason was not fussing. It was as if she too knew her fate was sealed and unless a miracle happens it could not be changed.