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Who Could Have Done It? And Why?

One simple act would leave two families devastated

PR King
5 min readMar 21, 2023
Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash

The newborns

The two women who gave birth in Hardee Hospital, in tiny Wauchula, Florida in 1978, never expected the havoc the births would wreak in their lives in the coming years.

On Nov. 29, 1978, Barbara Mays gave birth to a baby girl. A few days later, in the same hospital, Regina Twigg also gave birth to a baby girl. The Twigg and Mays families did not know each other, though their lives would intertwine in the years to come.

When the Twiggs were leaving the hospital with their newborn, they were told the baby had a heart defect. Her condition had not been mentioned before.

Arlena and Kimberly

Both families brought their baby girls home to care for and raise. The Twiggs name their little girl Arlena. The Mays named their baby Kimberly.

But while Kimberly grew up healthy, Arlena, born with a heart defect did not. She couldn’t ride a bike or play like the other kids.

The bombshell that changed everything

Kimberly Mays, an only child, grew up happy and healthy. Unfortunately, her mother Barbara would pass away from cancer when she was three. But Bob, her…

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PR King
PR King

Written by PR King

Florida stories, history fan, avid reader, geeky Boomer, Sagittarian with a Capricorn moon, Chromebook convert, military brat, sober 30+

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