Diana Walsh - Empty Cradle

It was December 23, 1993, when an editor yelled out, Great story! in the Toronto Sun building on King Street East in Toronto. A radio transmission had come through telling of a newborn that had been stolen from the maternity ward of a local hospital. Dressed as a nurse, a woman had entered Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital and fled with a mothers newborn. The human side of the story would not be realized until later, after the creation of a blockbuster headline. Its a stolen Miracle, said one veteran in the newsroom. This was typical, as editors often write headlines while reporters run out the door to get to the scene. There is some truth to the old adage if it bleeds, it leads. Of course, the people who work in news are not actually that crass they have kids and feelings too. We care. But the story comes first. This was a heck of a story. A winner.

Theres a Christmas wish list in newsrooms that editors and reporters working the holiday season know all too well. With short staffing and pages or time to fill, a big story during the holiday season is the present they all desire. They dont care if this gift is delivered from Santa or from a police radio.

At that time I was a 29-year-old, eight-year veteran of chasing stories. Most ended badly so I prepared myself for the worst. I had covered my share of just that. I hadnt seen many happy endings.

This babys safety was on everybodys wish list a gift not just for the media but for her family and everyone who followed the news of the childs loss. The impact of the babys kidnapping was felt regionally and, ultimately, internationally. Even with the limited technology of the time, news travelled at lightning speed. This was before there were websites and blogs; I personally did not even have a cellphone. Security in hospitals was not as advanced as it is today, and there was no AMBER Alert in existence.

The details of this crime will follow and haunt a mother for a lifetime. The horror that was inflicted on her, her husband, and their children cannot be repaired, healed, or removed. For them it was not a headline or a great story, it was a nightmare. I remember thinking at the time that the story would make a great book, a story that people would be interested in long after the media had forgotten about it, long after the story was replaced with the latest headline grabber.

What this mom was subjected to is what is most compelling. Nothing can be taken for granted and nothing is for sure even the safety of a newborn in the normally safe haven of a maternity ward.

How could one ever trust again?

For this babys mother, there was a new reality. For Diana Walsh, writing the book Empty Cradle seems cathartic, her own form of personal therapy. Its reflective and real, honest and touching. This was an event she lived through, endured, and survived, but not without some bangs and bruises. While the media got its tremendous story and reporters went on to the next big scoop, the trauma for a family lingered. No simple trip to the store, or the seeing off of a child to school, would ever be quite the same.

Empty Cradle has everything from crime to pain and fear to sheer joy. But its not a true-crime story in the usual sense. Its a moms story.

Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun