Can I Let You Go?: Part 3 of 3: A heartbreaking true story of love, loss and moving on

Can I Let You Go?: Part 3 of 3: A heartbreaking true story of love, loss and moving on
Cathy Glass

Can I Let You Go? is the true story of Faye, a wonderful young woman who may never be able to parent her unborn child.Faye is 24, pregnant, and has learning difficulties as a result of her mother’s alcoholism. Faye is gentle, childlike and vulnerable, and normally lives with her grandparents, both of whom have mobility problems. Cathy and her children welcome Faye into their home and hearts. The care plan is for Faye to stay with Cathy until after the birth when she will return home and the baby will go for adoption. Given that Faye never goes out alone it is something of a mystery how she ever became pregnant and Faye says it’s a secret.To begin with Faye won’t acknowledge she is pregnant or talk about the changes in her body as she worries it will upset her grandparents, but after her social worker assures her she can talk to Cathy she opens up. However, this leads to Faye realizing just how much she will lose and she changes her mind and says she wants to keep her baby.Is it possible Faye could learn enough to parent her child? Cathy believes it is, and Faye’s social worker is obliged to give Faye the chance.

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Copyright (#u6538a686-0d6c-5d17-8ac9-af0c43926e09)

Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the children.

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First published by HarperElement 2016

FIRST EDITION

© Cathy Glass 2016

A catalogue record of this book is

available from the British Library

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Cover photograph © plainpicture/Westend61/Valentina Barreto (posed by models)

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identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780008153748

Ebook Edition © September 2016 ISBN: 9780008153755

Version: 2016-08-04

Contents

Cover (#u989ce3d8-9de0-5dcf-a4d4-ee9ae4082f10)

Title Page (#ulink_e6c3dfc0-c281-567a-b468-a6481977e3aa)

Copyright (#ulink_bf9473c8-7ba3-512e-922e-8f1ffa8ecd1e)

Chapter Sixteen: Teaching Faye (#ulink_3a1d14e7-4b6a-51eb-9672-0f995db807f0)

Chapter Seventeen: An ‘Off Day’ (#ulink_f172c113-d3d8-5cb8-a05b-9373710190aa)

Chapter Eighteen: Excited and Concerned (#ulink_4d012e04-686c-5b6c-8104-bafb4d0f628a)

Chapter Nineteen: Baby Edward (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty: Second Thoughts (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One: An Impossible Decision (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Saying Goodbye (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Revelation (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Four: A Loving Legacy (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Suggested topics for reading-group discussion (#litres_trial_promo)

Cathy Glass (#litres_trial_promo)

If you loved this book … (#litres_trial_promo)

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen

Teaching Faye (#u6538a686-0d6c-5d17-8ac9-af0c43926e09)

The following morning, Saturday, once Faye was up and dressed and had finished her breakfast, she was eager to learn how to make up a bottle of milk. It was ten o’clock, Adrian had gone to work and Paula and Lucy were wandering around in their dressing gowns, taking their time getting up, as it was the weekend. Faye came with me to the kitchen where I set the two instruction sheets in their plastic sleeves side by side on the work surface. I carefully explained what each was for.

‘You can do that one,’ Faye said, pointing to the sheet for sterilizing the bottles. ‘I want to put the milk in the bottles.’

‘You have to learn to do both,’ I said. ‘All the bottles must be washed well in warm water and sterilized before you make up the milk.’ I’d explained this when we’d gone shopping for the sterilizer, but as with many new things Faye had to hear it a number of times before it was committed to memory. ‘If you don’t sterilize the bottle, germs could make your baby sick,’ I emphasized. ‘So what is the first thing you do?’ I pointed to number one on the step-by-step instructions for sterilizing the bottles.

‘One. Wash all the bottles in warm water,’ she read slowly, as a young child might.