MRS D: I’m not sure but I think it was $5.00, I’m not sure.

KAREN: Do you think that would have influenced many women, many couples at that time against going to the hospital?

MRS D: I’m just trying to think, it probably did. I never even thought about it. Our only income was what we got, like if we saved some cream from the cows or some eggs. They were like fifteen cents a dozen. At one time they were only five cents. You could buy a chocolate bar, a nice big chocolate bar for five cents.

MARYANNE and KAREN say their thank yous.

MARYANNE: Would it be all right if we use your name in the book?

MRS D: Doesn’t matter to me.

KAREN: If it ever does, or if…. etc. We leave information and a reassurance she can contact us at any time. We leave our card.

As it turned out, I had been home barely an hour from that interview, when she called me to say that her first labour and delivery hadn’t gone the way she’d remembered, after all. A few months later (it took that long to find a mutually agreeable date, I returned to interview the couple together.