THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 25, 1994 TAG: 9411250226
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN E. QUINONES MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Her mother left and just never came back.
Baby Sylvester was born at Norfolk Community Hospital last on Christmas Eve, a pink, wrinkled bundle of joy weighing a little over 5 pounds.
Her mother, who identified herself as Michelle Sylvester, arrived at the emergency room at 7:22 a.m., accompanied by a nervous-looking young man she called Roy.
She'd been in labor for seven hours, she told the admitting nurse. She was 21 and worked at a filling station. Roy, she said, did construction work.
There was no time to say anything else. In less than a half-hour, the young woman had a baby girl.
Four hours later, it was discovered that she had abandoned her child.
Michelle Sylvester and Roy sneaked out of the hospital, probably departing in the red pick-up in which they had arrived.
Hospital officials notified Child Protective Services in the Department of Social Services, which placed Baby Sylvester - that's what the newborn was officially called - into foster care. The police were notified.
``This type of thing doesn't usually happen in Norfolk,'' police spokesman Larry Hill said recently. ``We tried to locate the mother or other family members, because we hoped someone was having some second thoughts about what happened and wanted to reclaim the child.
``Of course, we get a lot of different cases, but it's hard not to get emotionally involved when a child is missing or abandoned,'' Hill said. ``I guess it's because a child is helpless, so everyone wants to do something to help it.''
After trying to develop its own leads, the Police Department called a news conference to ask the public for information about the case.
Baby Sylvester, swathed in pink and white blankets, attended the news conference cradled in the arms of her foster mother.
The baby yawned a few times, then fell into a contented sleep, apparently oblivious of the attention she was generating.
Newspapers and television stations in the area carried the story, but there was still no word from or about the mother.
She just never showed up.
Baby Sylvester never again set her brown eyes on her biological mother.
But Baby Sylvester is Baby Sylvester no more.
She was adopted by a Virginia Beach couple in October, and spent her first Thanksgiving with her new family.
Dorothy Fariss, a supervisor at Child Protective Services, said the baby has been renamed and is doing well in a loving family.
``The whole thing is sad, and I really sad for the mother, because I wonder how she'll feel later in life about all of this,'' Fariss said. ``But at least the story has somewhat of a happy ending - at least for the baby.'' ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Baby Sylvester, abandoned on Christmas Eve last year, has been
adopted by a Virgina Beach couple.
KEYWORDS: ABANDONED BABY BABY SYLVESTER by CNB