Sixteen years old, unmarried and pregnant. Over 40 years ago, the options were limited for a young woman in that "condition". Marriage, a back-room illegal abortion or adoption were the most popular choices. Single mothers were rare. There was only one choice in my mind though.

Not everyone was too happy about our marriage plans though even knowing a baby was on the way. My future mother-in-law even paid a visit to me imploring me to reconsider our marriage plans. She was concerned about our marriage ruining her only son's career. He was just about to enter medical school. From the time my ex-husband was a child, his nurse mother had her heart set on her only son becoming a doctor. She had that goal in mind early on, and did all she could to encourage him to become a doctor.

While she never mentioned the possibilty of adoption or abortion during our talk; I knew our marriage was not a choice that she sanctioned. Parenting was the path we had chosen, but, she was concerned that being saddled with a wife and child would ruin her son's chance to become a doctor.

I remember boldly tell her that if she thought marrying and having a child would deter her son in her plans, she didn't know him that well. I brashly boasted that I felt certain that nothing would stop him from achieving his career goal. I was right.
Neither set of parents was thrilled at our marriage or baby plans.

We suspected that might be the case, so we attempted to elope. After several pathetic unsuccessful attempts, we realized that we had to tell our parents.
At age 16, I looked about 12, so trying to convince anyone that I was old enough to marry was a dismal failure. We needed parental permission to legally marry.

Convincing our parents that we were serious about our intentions was no small task. They could have tried to force an abortion or adoption, but, they didn't. Even though they were definitely not happy with our decision to marry and parent our baby, they went along with it. They could have dismissed our feelings for each other, and said we were too young and didn't know what love was. However, they didn't do that either.

Inevitably, spending time with my granddaughter sometimes causes me to reflect about that choice I made over 40 years ago. I was pregnant with her mom, my only daughter.

To Be Continued.......................................