This story took place on April 24, 2004, at Rockford Illinois Hospital. Ginny Joseph, a neonatal nurse, was called to the emergency room. There was a teenager with a hood over his face and a shoebox.
The woman looked inside the box and saw the newborn wrapped in a kitchen towel. The baby was taken to get medical attention. But the teenager did not leave but stood there crying. After the baby was stabilized, Jenny approached the teenager and began questioning.
The teenager told her that he and the child’s mother, Cherish Coatzel, who is 15, wanted to give him up for adoption. Jenny explained to the teen that they would lose their parental rights and they would never see the child. She suggested thinking about other options before making a decision.
The next day, the underage parents came to the hospital to visit the child. Ginny approached them. The girl told them that she lived with her grandparents and had hidden the pregnancy from them. She gave birth to the baby in the bedroom. The teenagers were afraid of the relatives’ reaction and decided to keep the baby in the hospital. They put the baby in a box with a note: “We love you, we just can’t raise you. We want him to be named Allen Corey. We will hopefully be able to see him and God will take care of him.”
The girl went to the hospital every day to visit the baby and bring him breast milk. Thanks to the nurse’s support, Cheresh told her relatives about the newborn, and he was taken home from the hospital.
Twelve years later, Cherish decided to track down Ginny. She sent a message to the nurse on Facebook. Cherish Coatzel is now 29 years old, a mother of three and living in Arizona. She became a nurse and dreams of going to law school to become a mental health professional.
