I tak się zdarza…

No one expected Tymek on this earth. But he arrived. Announced himself with a loud cry, demanding food, attention, care. And his mother… Mother ran away, stumbling from weakness, barely two days after the birth. Vanished to parts unknown, feeling not a shred of attachment to the tiny bundle, unwilling to shoulder responsibility for his life. She was only nineteen, her only close person, Grandma, died a year ago. Then there was a boyfriend who made many promises, but left. Everyone had abandoned her! Mom and dad in childhood, in a car crash, and Grandma, who loved her girl so much, had recently left too… Dad was from an orphanage, Mom had sisters, but they’d long lived in Italy with their father, her grandfather, and she had no contact with him.
Some absurd story full of hurts, anger, some quarreling over things… At first, she wasn’t interested in it, and then, when Grandma got really sick and ended up in hospital, stories were the last thing on her mind.
This year she was supposed to finish technical school; classmates were writing diplomas while she… Well, nothing, nothing. Alone, she’d manage somehow, but only alone! A child – that’s hard. Very hard! Almost impossible. And life was already heavy enough for her, why couldn’t they understand? So she left her little one, maybe someone would help him. Like they once helped Dad. Yet people come, say things, but who are they, why – unknown. And to hell with them… Once she gains a little strength, she’ll figure out how to live…
But Tymek needed his mom not later. He needed her now, right now! To press his cheek to his mother’s breast, drink her milk, feel her heartbeat…
But there was no mother’s warmth, so he was scared and lonely. He cries, wants his mom. Yet only unfamiliar hands keep picking him up. They feed him milk, but it’s not mother’s milk, so his tiny tummy constantly aches and churns. Sleep is restless, waiting… Even through his troubled sleep, the baby might recognise his mother’s voice. Yet all voices are strangers.
Little Tymek knew how to wait. He waited for his mother’s hands, the warmth of her body, the taste of her milk, and probably prayed to his infant gods with all his senses, even the soft snuffles from his tiny nose.
And the gods listened. The head doctor of the maternity ward, a kind-hearted woman, didn’t condemn the young mother, but she couldn’t accept such a sweet, tiny cherub being left without his mom.
She used all her contacts and learned all about Tymek’s mom, found the address of Mom’s grandfather and Tymek’s great-grandfather in distant Italy, contacted him, and spoke long over video. She told him about his unfortunate, lonely granddaughter, with no one to help her in this world, and about the tiny boy, not yet begun his life, yet already unwanted.
Grandfather couldn’t travel such a distance anymore, but both aunts, Mom’s sisters, came instead. Tymek’s mother lay sick at home. Her chest burned unbearably, milk almost wouldn’t express, fever spiked. She couldn’t grasp what was happening, who these people were or what they wanted. The ambulance doctor brought the young mother back to the ward where nurses, gently but firmly, ignoring tears and protests,
expressed the last milk from her breasts, brought down the fever, and brought Tymek. He watched her intently with his little eyes, wrinkled his nose,
and made faces. Had she recognised her son? Of course, she had. Took him in her arms. Meaning, she wouldn’t let go again.
Later, she was discharged, and two loudly chattering aunts drove her and her son home. Somehow, a small bed had appeared there by itself, a chest filled with nappies and miniature clothes… The aunts talked with her, fed her familiar noodles with cheese they called *kopytka*. What matters isn’t what they call things, but that she wasn’t alone anymore. That someone was asking:
– How are you? Did you eat? Drink? Drink more tea with milk, your milk will flow better. Maybe rest a bit? You sat long with Tymek at night, you’re exhausted…
You think this is a tale of the boy Tymek, or his young, silly mom? No, oh no. This is a tale of the head doctor and all the compassionate people who don’t just perform their jobs, but go a step beyond. And this „step beyond” saves lives, weaves together fates, gifts happiness. That „step beyond” became joy for a little human and his young mother. If we all did „a step beyond” our duties, didn’t pass indifferently by others’ pain, imagine how much better our world would be!