Excerpt from Innocence Lost
by Angela Mensing-Farley

Editor's Note: Angie sent me an excerpt of her forthcoming book Innocence Lost. My reaction to the excerpt: Not only would I read the entire book, but I wanted to publish the following in our Loss Journal right away. As a bereaved parent myself, Angie's words ring so true, and I can't wait to see the entire book!

Excerpt from Innocence Lost:

My name is Angela Mensing- Farley, and I belong to a very exclusive "club" that few outsiders are even aware exists. Unlike country clubs that charge dues, membership in my club is "free." It's the "initiation fee" that's the killer. Literally! You see, I am one of more than 39,000 women in America who every year who loses a child to stillbirth. Most, like mine, die at or near full term!

Did I say there were no "dues"? How about heartache, pain, anger, confusion, ignorance, beurocracy, stupidity, selfishness, arrogance, forgetfulness, rudeness and most of all emptiness. Every day, 365 days a year, we pay the emotional cost of not having our babies with us. Of remembering a trip to the hospital pregnant, and coming home to a nursery empty-handed. Of making funeral arrangements and telling friends, few of who can face the reality any better than we can. And once a "member," one is always a member. For the rest of our lives. There's no way to "resign."

 


Author Biography
I am the facilitator for the first M.I.S.S. group in Illinois. When I was just 16 years old I gave birth to a perfect but stillborn baby boy named Shawn Christopher Mensing Jr. He weighed 3 Lbs. and was 16 ½ inches long. It was a very traumatic birth because of my age and other circumstances. I now have healthy 10 and 3 year old children.

I am the facilitator of the first M.I.S.S. group in Illinois (Sandwich, IL to be exact (Don't laugh it really is a city)). I feel it is fate that brought me to the M.I.S.S. foundation. The day I signed the papers making this chapter 'official' was the 11th anniversary of my son's journey into heaven. I am here to help others and hope to touch each of their lives and make such a sad event a little more bearable because they have someone to lean on who has been there. I am full of enthusiasm and here 24 hours a day if anyone needs me. I can be contacted via e-mail at angie@thefarleys.com.

In my spare time, I love to do photography of all types and visit the zoo regularly with my family and friends.

   
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