Teacher asked by student's desperate parents to take their unborn baby – mom's in labor the next day
The role of a teacher is far more than it seems on surface level. Teachers don’t just teach – they help to shape children into the ambitious, kind, friendly, smart adults of the future. That’s a massive responsibility to take on.
It’s no surprise, then, that many teachers have a caring nature that helps them to be patient when needed, see the potential for a child that others have given up on, and even go as far as to help out their children’s families when they’re in need.
One woman who proved exactly why teachers deserve massive respect for their supportive role in society is Miss Lira. She went above and beyond to help out a family in need, stepping up to take on a duty that was never expected from her.
Let’s rewind this story back to the beginning. It all starts with one of Miss Lira’s schoolchildren, seven-year-old Junior Flores. Junior’s parents, Marvin and Zully Escobar, are Guatemalan asylum seekers. The family lives in Stamford, Connecticut.
COVID-19 has tested us all in these past months, but no-one more so than those who have become infected. Not only did Marvin and Zully lose their jobs as a result of quarantine regulations, Zully, who was in the late stages of pregnancy, tested positive for the virus.
Zully was only hours away from giving birth to a premature baby. She knew that she couldn’t look after it, and nor could Marvin, who could have contracted the virus from her. She didn’t know where to turn – and so she did the only thing she could think of.
She rang little Junior’s teacher, Miss Lira.
According to the Hartford Courant, she spoke breathlessly on the phone, and in Spanish:
“‘Miss Lira? I need help.’”
ABC7 reported that Zully had listed Miss Lira as their emergency contact, as they had no other family in the country that could support them.
Luciana Lira, aged 42, teaches at Stamford’s Hart Magnet Elementary. We’re pretty certain she doesn’t receive phone calls from desperate pregnant women asking her to take on their babies on a regular basis, but Miss Lira didn’t hesitate to say yes.
Zully then asked Miss Lira to call her husband. Despite the fact that the two had only ever exchanged smiles at a parent-teacher conference, Miss Lira and Marvin were now talking on a deeply personal level.
Miss Lira told The Courant:
“All he could do is cry. And cry. And cry. He said, ‘She was five weeks early. I’m just terrified. I don’t know what’s going on in my life.’”
Miss Lira had her own family at home, and she was teaching remotely. But she just couldn’t say no to the parents, who she knew had reached out to her as their last hope.
And then baby Neysel Flores was born, just one day later.
He weighed just 5 pounds, 12 ounces, and was born by C-section while his mom was in a medically-induced coma. It seemed as if Mom might not pull through. Miss Lira said:
“She was critically ill, to the point where they thought she wasn’t going to make it.”
Still, little Neysel was miraculously healthy, and Miss Lira took him home 5 days later. By that point, Marvin and Junior’s COVID-19 test results had come back, and they were positive.
Miss Lira was to become Neysel’s temporary mom.
Of course, she didn’t have any of the newborn gear at home that she needed, so she started to take donations from her family and friends.
She has been looking after Neysel ever since.
Zully is back at home and doing better, but she still can’t see her baby son. The family is using Zoom to be able to communicate with him virtually.
As for Miss Lira, she is much more than “just a teacher”. She has stepped up with an act of kindness that the Flores family will never forget.
You can take a look at Miss Lira’s GoFundMe page, set up to support Zully and Marvin, here.
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