Small Graves

by Nancy R. Koerner – Naples, FL
Copyright © 2008 – All Rights Reserved

Helen Grey was a native Belizean woman. She was 32 years old when I met her, and had already given birth to 17 children and buried 10 of them. Helen never had the option of “pro-choice.” For her, “pro-life” meant another small grave in the backyard. That was when I made it a personal crusade to help young Belizean girls acquire birth control whenever possible. Because Belize is almost entirely Catholic, and parents were very strict, this always had to be done on–the-sly. But I like to think that it was a significant contribution on some modest level. As a result, a few dozen girls were able to go college and have careers, rather than being doomed to their tiny villages in an eternal state of barefoot-and-pregnant.