Impressions: Returning to Gladney, by Paula Nielson
November - December 1997 Issue, Adoption Triad Forum

Birthmom to Henry, born June 3, 1970
Gladney Resident at 2104 Hemphill St. #10

Near the end of the tour (of what is now the Salvation Army First Choice Program), we came to the two apartment buildings. Our tour guide took us to the left building first. Inside, it really didn't look all that familiar to me. So I walked across the yard and onto the porch of the other building. As I stood on the porch and in the doorway, I knew this was it. This was the building I had lived in from the end of February until early morning June 3, 1970. The pay phone (the only phone we had ) was still in the same place on the wall.

I waited for the rest of our group before going inside. As I walked up the stairs with the rest of the group, I knew that the apartment I had lived in, would be on the left at the top of the stairs. There it was - #10. Our guide knocked on the door of the apartment on the right, and we chatted with the occupants. Then she walked to #10 and pulled out her keys. Inside, my friend Shannon held her hand out and stuck by me every step. Shannon was born two days before my birthson, and her birthmother lived in the apartments as well. While there, our living room doubled as a bedroom with two twin beds - it still did. Mine was on the left. The whole place was smaller than I remembered.

I went straight for the bathroom. I'm sure people wondered why I was taking a picture of the bathroom. But one of the clearest memories I have always had of the apartment and of Gladney, was that of lying in that bathtub, all alone, the night before I delivered, and quietly sobbing. It was there that I knew that the child I had carried for almost nine months would soon no longer be mine.

I would later share copies of the pictures of the apartment with my friend, Molly Be, who was at Gladney two years later. As it turned out, she had also lived in #10.

She, too, remembered the bathroom.