I was supposed to go to Young and get cherries back today, but some shocking things had just happened this morning and I am still in the process of clearing my mind from what I heard.

One of my colleagues rang in this morning saying that she just had a baby boy last night on her bathroom floor at home. The labour went on for about 2 hours while at the same time they got ambulance come in and finally took her from Captains Flat to the Queanbeyan hospital.

It doesn’t sound shocking at all, does it? Now, listen to the next part of the story. NO ONE in this office KNEW she was going to have a baby and as a matter of the fact, no one knew she was pregnant in the past 9 months, neither did she tell anybody about this. Some experienced people (definitely not me) had their suspicions once or twice as they noticed her belly was popping up differently (Mind you she is a tall big lady), but no one ever asked her about it.

Yesterday afternoon, I clearly remember that me and her were working on our Xmas decoration in the office. We put up some tinsels and lights for our windows. She was happy and just acted as she usually does. 3:30pm she said “it’s the time for me to go home”, and I said “see you tomorrow” and “have a good night”‘, now it seems she would never come back.

So, you think this is still normal for a woman to do this sort of thing? Okay, find a chair and sit right because you are about to listen to the next part: Believe it or not, this is the second time she did this!!!!! Last time was 3 years ago when I was not here. She started labour right in our office. The water broke and one of senior person, who is also a RN, drove her to the Queanbeyan Hospital. Nobody in the office knew she was pregnant (though they had their suspicions) like exactly what happened now. Her partner, the father of the baby was away in Northern Queensland gone fishing. She had nothing for this new born baby, no clothes, no nappies….nothing. Her partner didn’t know she was pregnant and when people asked her about it before that, she denied. She even told everybody that she didn’t know either and she was still having her periods.

How could she not know? She is a RN as well and a mother of two at that time. There is no logic way not noticing such a change in your own body. But it really made me feel extremely confused about why people would do such things? Why she didn’t want to let her own family, her partner, her parents or her kids know, to share the joy, or to get involved with such a big coming event? Why didn’t she want us to know? We could have been so supportive and looked after her well in the workplace. There are plenty of people in this office love babies, old enough to be grandmothers or enjoy helping her. Why? Why? Why? The youngest person in this office is 31 years old. She was as shocked as I was, and she told me that she probably needs a bit of counselling to comprehend this, I think so do I. Seriously, I really don’t understand any bit of it.

Anyway, we went to the hospital to see her this morning. The baby is beautiful, got blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin. The mother looked okay and healthy. But she told one of my colleagues that her husband was crossing anger with what had happened as he didn’t know. To be honest, I don’t think her kids knew this either. Her 13 yo daughter sat there looking shocked as well and I am not sure she would feel okay about all that had happened with her mother in the past 12 hours. She slipped the words out “I am not going to have babies” in the conversation.

After I got out of the hospital, I started to turn those shocking to some sadness. Yes, I felt very sad for her. Certainly at the end of the day, that’s her choice to be like this. People normally celebrate a new life and appreciate it, but in what way my colleague would have any of these feelings if she kept it to herself and made it totally a secret from people who knows her, loves her and lives right in her life? I don’t know. Maybe I made it a too big deal. But I don’t see having a baby is supposed to like this….like a dream, a click, then it’s all done….