I knew what it was going to be. I saw the little card in my letter box notifying me that I had a registered item at the post office to collect. I knew what it was going to be. It was the day before my 35th birthday. I didn't want to spend my birthday at the post office collecting it. So I put the little red and white card aside and waited until yesterday to collect it.
They handed me the white envelope and I signed for it. I didn't want to take it. I wanted to mark it return to sender and tell them that they had it all wrong.
So I have them both now. One certificate is full of hope and joy and of life. If you didn't know the second part of the story you would read the birth certificate and smile - a little girl, a sister, the daughter of Rachael the designer and of Steve the engineer. Born on September 11 2008.
But I know there is a second certificate. The one that is full of sadness and loss and tears. A little girl, never married, no occupation, lived in the one place all her life, a little sister, the second daughter of Rachael and Steve. Died on September 12 2008.
There in black and white. In indelible ink.
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5 comments:
It's so stupidly wrong that a mother has to see this... I have nothing "official" to mark George's life or death, and this is so wrong too...
(I love your Button tattoo idea from Moniques blog by the way. Perfect.)
Thinking of you And Alice Buttons.
xxx
Stupid Australia Post sent us our birth certificate in ordinary post so when I saw it had been sitting in my letterbox for a whole day I flipped. The one bit of paperwork I have to prove she lived. As she never took a breath outside of me, despite her 40 weeks and 5 days inside me, she never got the other piece of paperwork. It is so awful this happened to us all.
so sad, i'm so sorry.
we get only a death certificate here...it has some special name that i forget, but really its just a death certificate.
Here, we only get a death certificate too, but then I asked Vital Statistics and I can apply for a "stillbirth certificate" for $25. I did but still want an actual birth certificate. The nasty part of me wants to tell them that it took 5 weeks for the stitches to heal on my vagina, so I think I qualify for a birth certificate, no?
XXxx.
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