The unknown baby

In a cemetery in Edinburgh, there lies the body of a small baby boy with no name and no family. In 2013, on a cycle path at Seafield, Edinburgh, the six week old baby was found, wrapped in a Primark blanket. Yesterday, the body was finally laid to rest.

The police have not been able to find the mother, nor anyone from her family. No one knows why or how the baby was abandoned on the path, the circumstances are no clearer than they were two years ago. The baby was well-fed and apparently loved. Perhaps he was left there in the hope that someone could take care of him. By the time he was found, his life had been extinguished.

How sad the story of this poor baby and surely the unknown mother, who is surely suffering the deepest grief imaginable, but almost certainly she is suffering alone. What motive would she have to come forward? The overwhelming tragedy, the distress she must feel, might all be undone because not everyone might be so sympathetic if she came forward. No man can guarantee that she would not suffer abuse and condemnation, regardless of any accompanying oh so sad story.

200 people attended the funeral. 200 people, who did not know the baby boy with no name, brought teddy bears, balloons and white roses. The white coffin, donated by a funeral director, was so small it was carried by one man. People even knitted his final clothes.

A lone piper played Amazing Grace at the ceremony, the baby’s final journey was showered with love from a community that cared.

We may find out one day what really happened. It is bound to be a tragic story one way or the other. How could it not be? If there was unbearable sadness when the baby was abandoned, can you imagine how the mother feels today? There is no love like the love of a child. Whether this was a cry for help or an act of desperation, we may never know, but once again I reminded at the strength of community and how people can somehow bring light into the darkest place.