11-year-old fights for funeral for stillborn sister

Houston Chronicle ^ | March 15, 2007 | PEGGY O'HARE

[AgentEcho]

His peers are playing video games or riding their bikes, but Roger Holloway is spending his spring break fulfilling a very personal mission — giving his infant sister a proper burial.

His father is dead. His mother is in a hospital trying to beat a drug addiction.

So the responsibility for properly naming and burying the sister he never knew, who was stillborn nearly a year ago because of his mother's drug use, fell squarely on Roger's 11-year-old shoulders.

Today, thanks to Roger's determination and the kindness of strangers, the baby girl, known in the official record only as "Fetus Girl Holloway," will finally be laid to rest near his home at a Waller cemetery instead of in a pauper's grave.

And her burial plot will be marked by a 75-pound granite tombstone bearing an angel and the name Rachel Holloway — a name chosen for her by her brother.

[cripplecreek]

Just wow.

[Hydroshock]

Prayers sent

[tioga]

Touching.

[Constitution Day]

Man, that is so sad.

[mockingbyrd]

Wow.

[YellowRoseofTx]

Compare this young man (11 years old) and his strong feeling of responsibility, with the 13 year old criminal on another thread here.

What makes one boy in a very bad environment become so responsible and caring, and another become a criminal?

[pandoraou812]

Prayers for this brave little boy & his little sister. Shaking my head again..this is really so sad.

[ASOC]

Yup - another "drug use is a victimless crime" story. I did note that the "father of dead infant" could not be found.... A society that is cracking at the seams, and yet good folks still offered a hand.

[tioga]

"I'm not going to make the same decisions my mom made," he said, sobbing at times. " ... For the rest of my life, I'm going to hate drugs because of what happened to my mom and because it killed my sister."

I pray he keeps to his promise and leads a successful happy life.

[Emmett McCarthy]

Where did this fine young man get this kind of character? It gives hope that good can still arise out of this hollow shell of a "culture" we have today.

[OB1kNOb]

What makes one boy in a very bad environment become so responsible and caring, and another become a criminal?

Free will.

[edcoil]

I have not see pictures but could it be race?

[Millee]

"I'm not going to make the same decisions my mom made," he said, sobbing at times. " ... For the rest of my life, I'm going to hate drugs because of what happened to my mom and because it killed my sister."

God bless him! This kid is gonna do something with his life.

[madison10]

Crying... Bless him and one of heaven's newest citizens.

[Feiny]

I want to give this kid a hug.....

[guido911]

"I have not see pictures but could it be race?"

What a well thought-out statement in a thread about a child's love and humanity.

[peggybac]

I want to adopt this kid!

[jusduat]

God calls whom he will.