Yesterday morning, a mate's missus went to the midwife for a check-up for the bundle of joy due in May. The midwife couldn't find a heart beat. Mr and Mrs went off to Wellington Hospital this morning from Kapiti. Throughout the day, the whanau had gathered. In the halls outside, babies cradled in the arms of others', babies in incubators rushing past, songs sung by jubilant strangers. My mates' wife sat all day in a delivery room with a dead baby inside her.
In the waiting room, there was a surprisingly accurate crayon drawing of the classic African safari variety. Around the border was the story of twins who died in utero in the same trimester as this one had. Later on, other stories came out. Dead babies handed over in ice cream containers. Things had changed since those days, but my mate felt some comfort in bringing his own coffin.
Back at work, Cleaner Dave told how his sister had had the same thing happen, only without the midwife check-ups to bring attention to the death. The baby had gone septic inside her. Full hysterectomy, the works.
So, all in all, it's been a pretty fucked-up kinda week. In search of distractions, I have realised how poorly my research into movies was recently. I hereby wish to add this Supplementary Order Paper:
300 - The Battle of Thermoperlimmi-, Thermopylon-, The Battle between the Spartans and Persians as rendered by Frank Miller.
Pan's Labyrinth - How did I miss this? The trailer bogglingly draws on legends such as Alice in Wonderland, The Diary of Anne Frank, LOTR and Neil Gaiman's A Game of You. Hat Tip - The cute chick at Arty Bees.
Zodiac - David Fincher's latest, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey.
