Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital

I Guess He Thinks He's a Man

Lisa Dean sat in her kitchen with her friend Lucretia and Lucretia's two children. The roar of airplanes flying overhead spilled in the windows and filled the apartment, but D'Lisa slept peacefully in a car seat on the kitchen table. Lisa's friend Marian Thurston walked in, from Cheryl's store next door, chewing gum. She said, "They sell three-cent gum for five cents." Cheryl's son came in and picked up D'Lisa, cuddled her, put her back, and left. Lucretia pointed at her son and asked Lisa how much her brother Franklin charged to cut hair. "Four dollars for that age." Lisa picked up D'Lisa. "She's so nosy. See how she holds her head up and looks around. She can hold her head up by herself." Lucretia said, "If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have none, but now that I have two, I want two more." Like Lisa, she had her babies at Grady. "That old part was real nasty," she said. "The food was filthy." Lisa said, "Just about everybody I know had their kids at Grady." "I had my two kids there, and then some." "Oh yeah, you had an abortion. I should slap you for that. If I could do it over, I would have waited until later. Until I was married." They got a big laugh out of that. "That's what Shontelle said," Lucretia reminded them. "Shontelle called me white girl," Lisa said, "because my skin is so light. She done got divorced?" "Yep. She said she was happily married, then six weeks ago. . . ." I Guess He Thinks Tinksd He's a Man Lucretia stopped the thought, then said, "My oldest child's daddy, he helps a lot." "Just imagine,"Lisa continued, "how life would be different if we didn't have kids. We'd have it going on." "We can have it going anyway," Lucretia said. "That's right." "I'm glad I had mine when I was young. I can get on with my life." Lucretia picked up D'Lisa and rocked her until she fell asleep. "I believe she likes me," she said. "Marian, after you have your baby, next year you'll be pregnantagain." Marian shook her dead defiantly. "Not me." Lisa's son Rob and Lucretia's two children played loudly on the floor, rolling cars, moving superpowered action dolls, conquering a mighty foe. Lisa recalled that when she learned she was pregnant, her sister was with her. In a squeaky-sillyvoice, Lisa said, " 'I'm going to have another nephew!' I said get out/ I am not going to have this baby. She said yes you are. I didn't tell Dwayne/ she told him. But I think he knew. He was sick before Iwas." Marian said, "That's how Randall knew, too. He was sick." Lisa said, "My mom said, 'I do not believe in abortion. Youknew what you were doing when you were getting him, and you're going to pay the consequences. A child is a beautiful thing.' God makes a baby out of love, and all that kinda stuff. God is the only one to determine life and death, not you. Then I had to sit down and think about it. I cried, boy, I tell you. Marian said, Til help you. I'll help you/" She imitated Marian with a quick, nasal voice. "I thought I just wasn't ready for a baby. Rob was just turning five. And I didn't want it to be a deadend street, like when I was seventeen. And I wanted at least to be married. I guess God makes everything happen for a reason. But now I'm glad I did"—she spoke in a baby voice and smiled at her daughter—"because I got my little girl. I don't want to ever have no abortion, though. I'd be scared to do it." Lucretia asked, "Are you morally against it, or you just can't do it yourself?" "I can't do it myself." I Guess He Thinks He's a Man 149 250 I Guess He Thinks He's a Man "She's morally against it," Marian said. "Yeah, that too." "She is morally against it," Marian repeated. Lisa turned adamant. "Most women, you know, use abortion for birth control, and that is not the way to go. That is...