Passers-by saved the newborn Mary Grace from certain death by pulling her out of her trash can in time, into which her mother threw her. She has grown up and now she herself strives to save the lives of children.
Mary Grace was born in 1995 in Hoffman Estates. Immediately after her birth, the mother threw the girl into the trash can, but fortunately the child was found in time. According to the doctors, a few more hours, and the baby would have been gone. In 1998, Mary Grace was adopted by a foster family, and since then she has been called Morgan Hill. The girl grew up in love and care, not even knowing how she started her life. And although the story of the abandoned baby was spread all over the world by the media, Morgan’s parents did everything possible to protect the girl from excessive attention. Reporters were not even allowed on the doorstep. Sandy, Morgan’s foster mom, believed that such fame could spoil the baby’s childhood. But she couldn’t hide the secret of her birth.
When Morgan got a little older, Sandy told her the whole truth. So, the girl found out that her biological mother had been hiding her situation for the whole period, deceiving her partner and everyone around her, so that she could secretly get rid of the child. She gave birth to Morgan in the bathtub when no one was home. The mother did not immediately decide to part with the girl. She washed her, breastfed her and drove around the city for a while, deciding what to do. And then she wrapped the baby in a towel, put it in a bag, tied it into two knots, and left it to die among the garbage.
Morgan owes her salvation to a construction worker named Harold Hyatt, who decided to throw out the garbage in the evening and heard the screams of a child.
Morgan also learned from the newspapers that her biological father had been trying to get full custody of her for six months. But the court, taking into account his financial problems and the situation of a single father, refused him, deciding that it would be better for the girl to live in a foster family. And he agreed with that.
Later, Morgan tracked him down. The man lives in another state. Communication has improved, and now dad and daughter try to see each other at least once a year. The girl also tried to find a construction worker, to whom she owes her life, and a nurse who nursed her in the hospital. Only in 2016 – 25 years after the events – local television was able to organize their meeting. Everyone was crying, and Morgan realized that day that she was alive for a reason, but for some reason, unknown to her yet.
The meeting with the saviors prompted her to begin the fight against social orphanhood. Morgan joined the work with organizations involved in this field, began to speak at conferences. Volunteering gradually became Morgan’s life’s work.
Now she is working to raise awareness of women in a crisis situation. The girl tells them about the options and possibilities that exclude criminal ways of abandoning the child.
Morgan reminds future parents that they can hand over a child for upbringing without taking his life.
Now every state in the United States has a safe haven law. Its provisions decriminalize the abandonment of infants by private persons defined by law so that the child is under the guardianship of the state. Parents also have the right to anonymity – even in court.
In 1995, when Morgan was born, there was no such law in Illinois. The girl’s mother, who conceived an unwanted child out of wedlock, found no other way out than to simply throw her daughter in the trash. Now, 26 years later, this girl is working hard to ensure that no mother does this anymore. Morgan plans to make even more public appearances and work on a book, which, in her opinion, will help save children’s lives, and give their mothers an opportunity to get out of the crisis.
