Yesterday (January 31, 2006), a great American, Coretta Scott King, passed away. No less tragic to me, however, was the death of another black person on the same day—my grandson, Aiden.
Aiden died of premature birth at 22 weeks. He was 12 inches long, 1.25 pounds and fully formed—mouth, nose, ears, eyelids fingers, toes—a beautiful baby. He looked like he was sleeping peacefully as my daughter held him for a long time before tearfully saying goodbye.
My son-in-law and daughter are now mourning their loss, as is the rest of our family. There is a movie in which a new mother holds her baby and says, “How can you love someone so much whom you just met?” With broken hearts, those are our sentiments exactly.
