Yearning

Photo via Unsplash by Vero Photoart

It was the old story. The in-laws and husband wanted a son. She gave birth to a girl, then another and another. After the fourth girl child, the village nurse told her that if she had another child, it would kill her. Either that would if her husband did not.

When she left the village behind and came to live with her husband in the small room behind the Parish church, I knew nothing of her existence. Owing to the increase in numbers at the…