What's in a name?

She belonged to no-one when she was born. 

She came out of a woman, of course, but was never held by her, or cooed to by her, or nursed by her. It is uncertain whether the woman even ever actually looked at her. 

She was weighed and measured and placed into a bassinet, next to the other babies who had mothers - real human mothers - and names.

She remained nameless for quite a while. At first they called her by her father's last name. On her chart it said, "Baby McGee." The father named McGee had not been informed of her arrival but still they used his name. And the woman who birthed her? Nothing of that woman remained with her - at first.

But then, a few days after her birth, the woman gave her two names - Renee Lorraine. The hospital insisted upon using the man's name as her last name however. Renee Lorraine McGee.

She still belonged to no one, but now she had a name. It was a start.

It is unclear how long she remained at the hospital, or where she went upon her release. Some think she was in a foster home run by the Sisters of Mercy, the same order that nursed at the hospital. But another version is that she was placed into a foster home where she stayed for 6 weeks.

Regardless, the woman who birthed her and named her, now signed papers giving her over to the Catholic Charities. They began the process of placing her. They received an inquiry from a young doctor and his wife and a decision was made. The couple did the necessary paperwork, and renamed her and changed her birth certificate and baptismal certificate to the new name. It would look as though Renee Lorraine McGee had never even existed. It was how things were done at the time. So the newly named Mary Lisa Rozgay went home with the couple.

The young doctor was a pediatrician and was eager to try out his skills on his very own baby. He gave her the same physical he gave all his newborn patients. He was careful and thorough, cooing to the baby as he went. His wife was watching anxiously, ready to pick up the baby if she seemed at all distressed.  They both noticed that she was not using her left arm and became concerned. And there was a contusion on her neck, and her head didn't turn from side to side. The mother was afraid that something was terribly wrong and said so. She was scared about being a mother at all, but knew she couldn't cope if the baby was disabled. The doctor was concerned, and wondered if these injurieis could have occurred during birth, or later at the foster home. And why hadn't the foster home noticed any of this? It unsettled both of them.

But the baby needed some medical help so they went to see an experienced pediatrician. 

The young doctor asked the pediatrician if it could be a broken clavicle, an injury commin in difficult births. They were somewhat relieved to hear that it could have happened at birth, but still wondered why it had not been seen earlier. Had this baby suffered in her foster home? Would she be all right?
The pediatrician took x-rays to see the broken clavicle and also discovered hip dyplasia. He recommended Mary Lisa be placed into a cast to hold the femurs of both legs in place in the hip joints, to help them grow correctly. The cast would her her legs in a v-shape and make it impossible for her to move her legs at all. She had to wear this for 6 weeks all the time, and then only at night for the next 6 weeks after that. The mother worried this might affect her ability to walk, but was reassured by the men. Privately, the young doctor was still a little worried - after all, if they discovered so many problems this early, what else might they find later? 

The neck contusion proved to be the most difficult problem because the pedicatrician advised the mother to push the baby's chin to the side several times a day, even though it caused the baby distress each time she did this. The baby cried and cried, and the mother cried and cried  - but still she did as instructed. She felt so conflicted doing this. Does a good mother cause her baby pain? 

The arm was pinned to the baby's side to avoid causing pain from moving it until the clavicle healed.

Despite all these troubles, the baby seemed happy enough much of the day. She smiled easily, had chubby cheeks and dark curly hair and bright eyes. The new parents took many pictures of her. She did not want the mother to pick her up, though, because she knew pain was coming. She would cry.

The parents were living in San Diego, where the baby had been born, but were moving back to Seattle. They didn't want anyone to know they had adopted a baby and were hoping people would think they had her while in California. They had been gone for a couple of years so this plan could work.

They sent out Christmas cards when they first arrived in Seattle, with 3 pictures of their new baby. The local parish priest congratulated them on their triplets. The new parents found this most amusing. It became a family story that was retold over and over again thru the years.

They set up home in the Catholic parish of St. Joseph's in Seattle and the doctor looked for an office space in which to begin his practice. They bought a house on the same block as the mother's mother and began to meet the neighbours, most of them young married Catholics like themselves. They had a dog, a Great Dane named Hamlet, whom they adored and the young doctor liked to lift him onto his shoulders every day. Hamlet was not concerned with the new arrival and seemed to take it all in stride, even allowing the baby to ride on his back sometimes..

Time went on. and Mary Lisa's bones healed and she seemed to be healthy and full of life.

The mother was so relieved when the neck was finally healed. The  baby did not seem to like her, and that made her feel so inadequate! She hoped that now she would be able to hold Mary Lisa and play with her, and start to feel really connected, the way she always thought it would be.