On Christmas Day, the New York Post ran an incredible story of pain and redemption. Susan Edelman of the New York Post covered the story of Marcus Wallace, a man who didn’t learn the shocking story of his birth until he was 20-years-old. He saw a name he had never heard listed as his mother on his birth certificate. A search for answers uncovered the horrifying truth: his mother was a young college student, who gave birth to Wallace in secret and abandoned him in a dumpster shortly after his birth.
Wallace, who is now 31, tells Edelman about the tremendous pain of uncovering this shocking truth. However, the core of the story is not despair. The story is life-affirming. Unexpectedly, Wallace’s seemingly insurmountable tragedy of abandonment was the beginning of a wonderful Life.
After he was miraculously rescued from the dumpster, Wallace was raised by his father’s family in Trinidad. He says of the grandmother who raised him, “I still love her as a mother. She took care of me as if I were her own.” Wallace returned to the United States to live with his father and exceled in track and field. Today he lives in Brooklyn and has a three-year-old daughter, Addison.
Of course, Wallace’s full Life would not be possible without the courageous men who rescued him. The night he was abandoned, Edelman writes, temperatures were below freezing, and Wallace would have soon died from exposure if he had not been found. A passerby, the attendant at the gas station where the dumpster was, and a police officer worked together after they thought they heard a baby.
Wallace’s mother has refused his repeated attempts to get in touch with her, but the three men who rescued him traveled to the place they found him 31 years ago. They were all deeply moved by the event, and Wallace has had a lasting impression on their lives.
Marcus Wallace still feels a void because he does not know his mother, but he said:
She’s still my mother. She carried me full term. I have nothing but love for the woman. I’m very grateful that I’m able to be a loving father to my own little girl. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be alive.
Wallace’s story illustrates the tremendous importance of Baby Moses laws. Unfortunately, Wallace’s ordeal is not unique, as recent stories show. With Safe Haven or Baby Moses laws, women in crisis can surrender their newborns to any fire house or police station without fear of any repercussions. The baby will receive immediate medical care and mothers in crisis do not ever need to reach the point of desperation that they abandon their helpless children.
The New York Post story also reminds us that the mother in crisis is not the only person who is affected by her decision to abandon the infant or seek an abortion. Wallace’s father gladly took the child after he was rescued and wanted to give him a family. Marcus Wallace himself is grateful for his Life. His only message to the mother who abandoned him: “I forgive you.”