She Was a Devoted, Perfect Mother
Far away from her tight and supportive family in Texas, and with her husband Jim working long hours, Tanya Thaxton Reid was lonely in Urbandale, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. Caring for six-year-old Carolyn and Michael, a sickly toddler, plus running the household and cooking meals, took all her time. She was tired and alone. As much as she tried, she just couldn’t get accepted into the cliques of mothers that she ran into at Carolyn’s school. She even volunteered to be a Brownie troop leader, but even that was unsuccessful because most of the other mothers didn’t show up.
At one point, she tried to get home visits for Michael, who, she was convinced, was developmentally delayed. A state agency representative met with her and the little boy and declared that Michael did not qualify for home-based special education. Tanya, it seemed, couldn’t get a break in Urbandale.
The emergencies
Two days after the agency rejection, Tanya called paramedics in a panic. Michael had stopped breathing. She gave him CPR, which revived him. He was subjected to medical tests, but there was no indication of seizures, as his mother claimed.
The paramedics were called to the Reid apartment so many times it became a joke among the EMTs. Each time Tanya was home alone with the…
