Cecilia’s long, tortured scream rose high into the parapets.

“Hang on, love, hang on…” Benjamin, her husband, urged through clenched teeth as his wife’s firm grasp cut off the circulation to his fingers. Her face red from exhaustion, his wife only gave short gaspy whimpers followed by around loud cry of agony.

Fear gripped Benjamin. His wife was dying giving birth to the only child God had granted them throughout their fifteen years of marriage.

Around him, the midwives rushed to replace the cooling washcloths that lie on her heated body while the most experienced stood in between Cecilia’s knees, awaiting the arrival. Suddenly, her eyes widened. “Madeline! Bring me some blankets!” The woman looked up to Cecilia urgently. “Keep pushing, keep pushing!”

Sweat poured from her glands as she gave another cry and did so, her fingers clenching the bed sheets. “God, make it stop!” she shrieked, bolting her eyes shut.

Benjamin shot to her side, cursing himself for being unable to do something more. How could he sit here and do nothing while the life slowly drained from his love? “Shh, it’ll be all right, love. I promise you. It’ll be all right,” he whispered, stroking her sweat-drenched chestnut tresses.

“It hurts,” she whispered back, her words emanating through the room, slow and detached.

“Francine, Paula!” the head midwife called. “Bring a pitcher of water.”

Cecilia’s body contorted as the toil reached its climax. A rattling scream erupted from her throat as she used the last of her energy to give birth to their child. “Here it comes…” one of the midwives cooed, encouraging Cecilia.

Her breath came out in short gasps before he turned to her husband. “I love you…”

Benjamin’s mouth dropped open in shock. He couldn’t lose her like this. His grip tightened around her. “I’m not going to let you go,” he declared with determined, scared eyes.

Just then the sound of a baby’s high-pitched cry pierced the air. Cecilia took a deep, amazing breath of air as her face lost some of its color. “Wh-what is it?”

“It’s a girl!” the one named Madeline exclaimed.

Time seemed to halt. “A girl…” Benjamin repeated, a small smile taking its time growing wider and wider. A tear trickled from the corner of his eye. “Cecilia, it’s a girl.”

His wife smiled, exhausted. “Can I hold her?” she asked just above a whisper.

Nodding, the head midwife wrapped the tiny baby into a blanket and softly placed the bundle into her mother’s arms. In awe, Benjamin looked inside the small cocoon to find…complete and utter beauty.

The infant patted its lips together, moving its tiny hands ever so slightly. “She’s gorgeous…” Cecilia said, running her finger across its almost purple cheek. “Just like a tiny pearl…” With that, she gazed up at Benjamin, the small amount of life left slowly leaving her body. “Pearl…”

Gasping for breath, Benjamin wrapped his strong arms around the two as if doing so could keep them safe from death forever. “I love you,” he mouthed to her.

A sweet smile appeared on her lips, and her head lethargically fell onto the pillow underneath of her. Her hand lay limp from her husband’s clasp, and without a word, she was gone.

Another tear followed his first, followed by another and another until there were too many to count, the undiluted joy and sorrow too much for him to take. Benjamin wasn’t sure how long he held his dead wife, his newborn daughter asleep in his arms, but he swore from that day on, he would never let her go.