The Mother I Wasn't

Summary

I collapsed on the sidewalk from low blood sugar. A man with a stroller saved me.

But when I got home, he was there—in my apartment—calling me his wife.

I stared, bewildered, as my mother handed me a baby.

“The accident was six months ago, Cobie. Don’t you remember your son… and your husband?”

I went to the hospital and pulled my records: detailed charts of a pregnancy I didn’t recall. Even the doctor shook his head, saying such memory loss wasn’t unheard of.

So I accepted it. I became a wife to a stranger and a mother to a child I didn’t know, working tirelessly to support them.