'Not a Sondy Tale, but another tale.
Baby Wilton
By Wilton Strickland in '08 (last 2 paragraphs in '13)
No, this is not about me, nor about things I've done. It's about a special
little boy who suddenly came into our lives in Feb 2006.
At about eight A. M. on Tuesday, February 7, '06, I was reading one of the
state's major newspapers, the Raleigh News and Observer, while eating
breakfast. I came across a short story about a newborn baby boy found in
the back of a pickup truck in Nash County, near where my wife, Alice, and I
grew up, about 45 miles north of here at about 10 AM on the sub-freezing
previous morning. The baby was still wet with amniotic fluid, had his
umbilical cord tied in a knot and was wrapped in only a towel and a small
blanket. His fingers and toes had minor frostbite, but he seemed to be
otherwise in good health. Before I finished reading the second sentence, I
knew that the little boy was going to be part of our family. Alice's niece,
Marcy, has been a foster mother for several years and had told the Nash
County Social Services ladies that she wanted to adopt a baby if one came
"available." I had no doubt that the baby would become our nephew.
For the next several days, I could think of nothing but that helpless little
baby, abandoned, crying, hungry and freezing in the back of that truck. I
didn't mention it to anyone else, not even Alice - I didn't want to "mess it
up." Finally, at about 6 P. M. on Friday, the phone rang. I answered, and
Alice's brother, the niece's father, said to me, "We have a new baby." I
wanted to say, "Yes, I know." Not wanting to sound too smug, though, I
hesitated, and he immediately went on to say, "And they've named him
Wilton." Now, I was crying and was unable to speak for a couple of
minutes. The baby had been checked at two hospitals, and by Thursday
morning, had been given a clean bill of health and released to Alice's
niece.
On Sunday afternoon, when I first saw him, the tips of his fingers and toes
were still red from the frostbite but had no significant damage. Though
very small at about 6½ pounds and wearing a diaper much smaller than my
hand, he looked very healthy. As he lay quiet, warm and comfortable in my
arms, he looked directly into my eyes, and seemed to understand and to
listen intently while I told him how much we will love him and how proud and
lucky we are to have him in our family.
Many have said he is a very lucky little boy. I even said that IF I were to
play the lottery, I'd want HIM to pick my numbers. I also said that he has
won a prize worth far more than any Powerball Lottery. He has "won" a
chance to get a good education, to become an outstanding citizen and to
learn from his family to have a strong sense of integrity - the ability to
do what is right when nobody else is watching. Most importantly, though, he
has a family who loves him.
There seems, though, to have been more than mere luck that brought him to
us. For example, what led the mother, or whoever left him in the cargo bed
of that truck to turn down THAT road and turn into THAT driveway and into
THAT parking lot and leave him in THAT truck? What compelled the owner of
the truck to go out to the truck at midmorning during duty hours, something
he had never done before and was even forbidden by his employer to do? What
made him feel that there was enough of a problem at his truck to risk being
fired to check it? Then, after at first seeing nothing wrong at the truck
and heading back inside, what made him hesitate and listen, only then to
hear the baby crying? A little while longer in the 25-degree air and the
baby would have died of hypothermia. Additionally, what made me so certain
so quickly that he would be in OUR family? Baby Wilton surely must have had
a guardian Angel that morning.
Most people who have heard about the abandoned baby, immediately think he is
of Hispanic descent because of the many Hispanic farm workers in the area
where he was found. That would make not difference at all with us, of
course, but he appears to be of Northern European descent, though, with very
fair skin, blue eyes and golden blonde hair, coincidentally, much like
Alice, her brother and niece. I think the mother was traveling on I-95,
which has an access only a mile or so from the point where the baby was
found, and pulled off to leave the baby before continuing the trip. We'll
likely never know, of course.
The county Social Services Department immediately began to get calls from
all across the country from people wanting to adopt the baby. One foolish
caller from Chicago even said he wanted to adopt the baby "for tax
purposes." Baby Wilton, though, never left the loving care of his
new-found family. With full approval of the Social Services, law
enforcement and judicial authorities, our niece began adoption proceedings
immediately. At the hearings, almost all of the parties i
