Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage, N.C. -- 'There' for O'Maille Family

 

The O’Mailles: pictured (from left) at a recent Life Care Pregnancy Center event are Alanna, Lori, Audrey (holding her son, Grayson) and Patrick. (Photo contributed)

Lori O’Maille of Pinehurst, N.C., spoke at two recent gatherings in Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, telling about help she and her older teenage daughter, Audrey, received from Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage, N.C.

O’Maille, a coloratura soprano who teaches voice lessons, served as publicity chair for Life Care Pregnancy Center’s gatherings at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 20, 2012, at SCC. The programs featured O’Maille’s testimonial and showings of “October Baby,” a movie about a young woman who survives a failed abortion and learns, as a teenager, about the circumstances of her birth and adoption.

“‘Life Care’ needs to become a household name in Moore County,” said O’Maille, as she told her story to about 100 people gathered at the 2:00 p.m. meeting.

Her daughters, Audrey and Alanna, and her husband and she returned home in 2010 from their first visit to Florida’s Disney World.

“It was the first Sunday of January 2010,” O’Maille said. “Audrey was acting a wee bit strange.”

Audrey, then a sophomore at Pinecrest High School, sat down in the room where her mother was taking down Christmas decorations.  

“I have something to tell you,” Audrey said. 

O’Maille, who said “time stood still” and that she knew somehow what was coming next, said, “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

Audrey said, “Yes! And I’m keeping the baby!”

The O’Mailles, ardent Catholics, attend St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Southern Pines, N.C.

“Abortion was not an option for our family,” O’Maille said.

Her husband, Patrick, a doctor of psychology who serves as a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, was nearby. He was soon involved in the conversation.

“I was in shock,” said O’Maille, whose father was a “love child.” Also, she, as a teenager, had some friends who became teenage mothers. “I knew from all aspects what Audrey was going to go through.”

O’Maille “sat three weeks in a room,” going through emotional turmoil. A parent of one of her music students told her about Life Care Pregnancy Center (LCPC).

Suzanne Clendenin, LCPC’s executive director, helped advise Audrey and her family during the pregnancy.

O’Maille said about Clendenin: “I would look at Suzanne and see the face of Jesus in her.”

Audrey wanted to go right back to school after having her baby, but Clendenin advised her to stay home for a semester after delivery and take online classes. She told Audrey, “I see a bright future for you.”

During her senior year, Audrey became Pinecrest High’s 2011 homecoming queen. Her son, Grayson, and her family were present at that crowning. She finished Pinecrest in June 2012 as a “N.C. Scholar” with a 4.2 GPA and is using a $50,000 scholarship (spread over 4 years) to study pre-nursing at UNC at Pembroke. She is active in the school’s Health Careers Club and is an “initiated sister” in Kappa Delta Sorority. She also works part-time.

Grayson was two years and two months old at the time of the recent LCPC meeting. His mother held him onstage as that meeting concluded.

O’Maille said about her grandson, “He’s the sun, moon and stars to me, and I would do anything for him.”

Life Care Pregnancy Center of Carthage, “a Christ-centered ministry that promotes the sanctity of human life,” may be reached at 910-947-6199 or by e-mail at lcpc01@embarqmail.com. Donations may be sent to LCPC, P.O. Box 519, Carthage, N.C. 28327.

 Lori O'Maille (left) and Patrick, her husband, greet Life Care Pregnancy Center event attendees. 

 Suzanne Clendenin, executive director of Life Care Pregnancy Center in Carthage, N.C.