I think you're close, but IMHO it's a community that's keeping quiet. I still think the parents are illegal and don't dare come forward for fear of being deported. Admitting that she died accidentally or of natural causes and having a proper burial may not be worth the rest of the family being sent back to wherever.
I really would like to address this "illegal" issue. Undocumented, illegal, whatever classification feels good, has no bearing on this case, IMO.
It's Massachusetts. No one ever gets deported from Massachusetts for being Illegal. The only people we deport, usually, are criminals at the end of a jail term
if that was part of their sentence, but usually those people just come back.
Further, Every hospital waiting room is packed with people seeking health care who don't speak a word of English and have no idea what fear of deportation would mean to them. Their access to health care, social services, social security, EBT, etc., seems to not fall short of what their needs may be.
I don't know what it must be like thinking that tens of thousands of people are cowering in fear of being deported or discovered, LOL. When their kids get sick they go to ER, walk-in, or what have you. I see and meet these peple all the time. I have worked with them. There are some times when a person has to be turned away from a job because of lack of a SS#, but there are forms for that situation too.
A situation where a child dies, or gets sick, and gets no care, in my opinion, is more connected to criminal activity, neglect involving drug use, warrants, trafficking, etc. Those are the people who are not going to come forward. That's why the baby is in a bag.
It's not because Mom is a working mom and the baby got sick but she is illegal so we need a trash bag. That Mom would go to the nearest ER in my experience.
It's Massachusetts. I know of no cases where regular every day undocumented people have lived in fear of being deported just for being illegal. And "especially" if their kids are sick.
This is different - witness the lack of anyone coming forward. We hope that someone else would have seen that face in those pants with that blanket, where, when, under what circumstances?
Off Soap Box.
MOO
