MOM LOVED BABIES: ALL 120.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Thank you, Muriel
Granada (gränä`thä), city (1995 pop. 74,396), W Nicaragua, on Lake Nicaragua. It is Nicaragua's third largest city and the center of commerce on Lake Nicaragua. Hills home the last 35 years as a foster parent to 120 babies who had no other home. Thank you. For nurturing and loving them for weeks, months and even years. And when the time came, for letting them go, even though it always hurt. It never got any easier saying goodbye, did it? Not from that first baby in 1969 - 3-day-old Danny, who stayed with you for four months - to Kiana, who was 2 months old when she came to you and 13 months old when she left with her adoptive parents adoptive parents Social medicine Persons who lawfully adopt children, who are generally married couples but may be single persons, including homosexuals; most APs are married a few weeks. You told me Monday Monday: see week. that she was the hardest one to say goodbye to - because she was the last. There will be no new baby for you to mother. At 78, you've decided it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to retire - to reluctantly say no to the case workers when they call from the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County Department of Family and Children's Services Adoption Division wanting to know if you can take one more. When I told Adoption Division supervisor Kirsten Roth that you were retiring Monday, she was near tears. Of all the foster parents she has placed babies with over the years, you were her favorite. The best. ``Muriel was the model for all foster parents on how to do the job,'' she said. There used to be a time when county officials didn't think it was wise to let adoptive parents meet foster parents, so it was always a case worker who came to take the child away. It was a cold exchange, one that didn't make any sense, Kirsten said. ``Who knew the baby better than the foster parent? Muriel always kept a complete history of every baby, complete with pictures at every stage. ``I'd introduce her to the adoptive parents, then move away and watch them from a distance. Muriel would tell the adoptive parents everything she knew about their baby, every little special detail. Then she would move out of the picture to let them be alone with their new child. ``It broke her heart, but she knew her job was done,'' Kirsten said. ``It was time to pass the mantle mantle, portion of the earth's interior lying beneath the crust and above the core. No direct observation of the mantle, or its upper boundary, has been made; its boundaries have been determined solely by abrupt changes in the velocities and character of seismic after fulfilling the critical job of loving and nurturing a baby at the beginning of life. ``I'd watch her do it over and over again. She was absolutely outstanding.'' Joey's adoptive a·dop·tive adj. 1. a. Of or having to do with adoption. b. Characteristic of adoption. 2. Related by adoption: mother called a few weeks ago to give Muriel an update on how he was doing. Many of the babies she's cared for the last 35 years stayed for weeks or months. Joey Joey after Joseph Grimaldi, famous 19th-century clown. [Am. Hist.: Espy, 45] See : Clowns stayed for three years, seven months and 11 days. Muriel knows exactly because it broke her heart when he left. ``He's gotten out of the Navy and is going to school to become a special- education teacher,'' she said, proudly. Who knows what Joey would be doing today if he hadn't had Muriel - the role model for foster care parents in Los Angeles County and his mother the first three years, seven months and 11 days of his life? If 35 years ago, Muriel and Art Cassel's teenage children hadn't told their parents they thought it was a wonderful idea to open their home to any baby without a home. The peach peach, fruit tree (Prunus persica) of the family Rosaceae (rose family) having decorative pink blossoms and a juicy, sweet drupe fruit. The peach appears to have originated in China, where it was mentioned in literature several centuries before Christ. tree in the back yard of the Cassels' home has grown a few feet in the five years since it was planted there - a gift from the adoptive parents of a little boy who lived with Muriel for 17 months. ``I was having a hard time getting over him, and his new parents wanted me to have the tree to remember him by,'' Muriel said. ``They told me as the tree grows and thrives, our little boy will grow and thrive, too.'' Our little boy. Muriel pauses and smiles - letting the faces of 120 babies who have shared her home and heart the last 35 years run through her mind. ``I loved them all,'' she says. ``Every one of them.'' Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Muriel Cassel holds a doll in the room where she cared for and loved 120 real babies, one at a time, as a foster parent. John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
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