“I had one too,” she whispered to me.
I felt less alone. She already had four, I had two, the baby a handful at barely one. Rough, drinking husbands.
“I felt so guilty, I confessed,” she said.
“I still feel guilty, what did the priest say?”
“He gave me Hail Mary’s and said never to do it again.”
“It’s still too painful for me to risk confession.”
Both of us, Catholics.
“I feel like a monster, and can’t forgive myself. I was about 10 weeks. You?”
“About the same. I still feel horrible.”
“I know.”
“I cry on my way home from work every night. I think about it all the time.”
We knew we would never do it again. Once was one more than we ever thought we could.
**photo Life Magazine cover, 1965 and reprinted Summer 1990
