Remember our discussions of breastmilk for adults, and moms of stillborns
being wet nurses?
Tonight I was getting a plot summary on "Grapes of Wrath" for my 17yo summer
reading test on Weds when she goes back to school, and the final sentence:
<<The oldest daughter, Rose of Sharon, gives birth to a stillborn child. As
the book ends, Rose of Sharon, realizing that people need each other to
survive, breast-feeds a dying stranger. >>
Sooo....I had to run upstairs and read this last part of the book,
immediately!!

Turns out they are flooded out and finding some shelter, see a boy and his
dying father who has refused to eat so the boy could, now he's starving. The
young girl seemed not to know much about pregnant and birth(she believed her
ma at first when she woke up after labor and was told there never was any
baby) but the two's eyes meet, and she goes to the man, he shakes his head,
but she says"you gotta" and she breastfeeds him. Hmmmm.... Steinbeck's a
smart cookie, maybe!!
                                          Georgeanne Mattise, Scranton, PA

Ooops, BTW, got this on the AP loop-I LIVE here but didn't hear about it!!
<<Saw this blurb in today's Phila. Inquirer:

 A Lackawanna Co.woman who says she lost her job after asking for extra
 break time to pump breast milk for her newborn has filed a
 gender-discrimination lawsuit against Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems.

 The suit was filed recently in Lackawanna County Common Pleas Court in
 Scranton by Marianne Terpak, of Jermyn, who described the milk-pumping
 talks as lifesaving b/c her infant daughter could not drink formula.

 The lawsuit accuses Lockheed Martin of sex and disability discrimination
 and seeks damages and back pay. L.M. officials could not be reached for
 comment y'day >>
and Jermyn is dh's hometown, probably he knows this family, it's a really
small town!
Boy do I live a sheltered(clueless?) life!! I hardly ever see a paper, let
alone the Philadelphia Inquirer!!
Chances are she could use Liz Baldwin esp. in this area!!