Amazing kindness: the gift of a son
Always close, these sisters’ tight bond deepened when Jaime carried a child for Liz
Four hours after Caleb Allingham was born, his aunt and his mother asked everyone to leave the hospital room.
The two sisters wanted to be alone with Caleb.
Jaime sat on the bed, exhausted, her body bruised from eight hours of labour. She held Caleb, sleeping and wrapped snugly in a white flannel blanket. She cradled him close to her chest and gazed down at his crinkled face.
Then, after one last kiss on the cheek, she passed him to her sister, who would, from that moment on, be Caleb’s mom.
Grasping Caleb tightly, Liz looked at Jaime and started to cry.
“How can I ever thank you for changing my life?”
Jaime had tears in her eyes, too – the first time the sisters had cried together.
“I won’t say that this isn’t hard,” Jaime said. “But I knew this was going to happen.
“I wanted so much to see you with a baby. I knew I could do this for you. And, I’ll always love him – as his aunt.”
LIZ AND JOE Allingham waited 12 years to have a baby.
The promise of a family – dirty sneakers by the door, making chocolate chip cookies, bedtime stories – was one of the things that brought them together.
They met in May 1997 while making a recording for their local Etobicoke church. Liz, a singer, was 25 and just emerging from a bad relationship. Joe, 14 years older and with long, curly red hair, was playing the piano.
“He was the best musician I had ever met,” says Liz.
“She was an amazing singer,” says Joe.
They went on their first date May 18. Five months later, they were married.
“After going out for two weeks we knew,” says Joe. “We just started talking about what life would be like when we were married.”
Soon, Liz and Joe were trying to start a family. They dreamed of bringing home a baby, yearned to paint a nursery, pick a name, see whether their child would have Joe’s smile or Liz’s eyes.
When nothing happened, they prayed to God for help. When they found out one year after their wedding that Liz had polycystic ovary syndrome, they continued to try, on their own and with the help of fertility experts.
Doctors were confident Liz could get pregnant. Given enough drugs, they said, her body would produce the right hormones and her ovaries would yield eggs.
But the fertility drugs failed. And, after seven years, Liz and Joe got used to disappointing pregnancy tests.
