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For the nine Baker children, ages two to 13, the year 1962 began tragically and ended triumphantly—much like that first Christmas more than two thousand years ago.
The disaster happened on January 12, a snowy Friday night. Although comfortable and safe in your home in Battle Lake, Minn., their mom and dad, Walter and Regina, were out drinking and driving, in that deadly order.
It was a traffic accident on a lonely and cold road. There were no eyewitnesses, but we do know that Mrs. Baker, who was driving, lost control of the truck. It rolled, throwing them both. They suffocated in the snow.
COMING 2024: CHRISTMAS AGAIN: LIVING FROM BIBLICAL LOVE
Without a will, their nine children were placed in foster families – various homes in the area. Because noise makes news and tragedies travel fast, Baker Nine’s plight and heartbreak became something of a national concern.
‘Baker Nine’ 1962 L-R: Loretta Baker, Susan Baker, Sally Jo Meyers, Jim Meyers, Jerald Baker, Jeffrey Baker, Teresa Baker, Karen Meyers, Timothy Baker, Pauline Baker, Monica Jo Baker, Philip Baker, owned by Jean, a new mother.
Over 1,300 miles away in the Charlotte, NCDon and Jean Meyers read about the horrific accident. However, one sentence in the story grabbed them and wouldn’t let them go:
“The children will not stay together,” one of the neighbors told the journalist.
“Children need parents, and if these children are together in this world, they should stay together,” a defiant Jean told Don. “We need children. We want these children.”
This is where the story’s many layers and providential twists begin to emerge.
In addition to their two biological daughters, the Meyers previously adopted three boys, two of whom were twins. When one twin son died of drowning, the Reverend J. Paul Bryon of the Church of St. Gabriela in Charlotte reached out to offer help. Grief can sometimes open previously closed hearts, and that’s exactly what happened. The Meyers, grateful for the love and support, finished by converting to Catholicism.
So, after seeing the Bakers’ story, Don Meyers called his parish priest, Fr. Bryon, who called Monsignor Michael J. Begley of Catholic Charities in Raleigh. The monsignor then called Catholic Charities in St. Cloud, Minn., which handled the Baker case.
“There is room here in our home and in our hearts,” Don Meyers said at the time. “God has blessed me with a generous income. I can afford to spend money on raising children. It is a small return for the blessings given to us.”
It is increasingly old-fashioned to see children as blessings, as priceless gifts. Instead, modern culture too often views babies as expensive burdens to be avoided. This narrow-mindedness not only deprives families of fun and fulfillment, but threatens our very existence. This is because societies die when couples do not marry and do not have children.
Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was the most famous adoption of all time, and far from the idyllic picture painted on maps or sung about in hymns. (iStock)
The Baker Nine arrived and met their new parents at the Charlotte airport on December 17, 1962. There were many smiles and hugs. Love was new, but true. It would be good Hallmark Christmas movie if that’s where the story ended, but it actually began.
Monica Harbes, who was only two when her parents died and three when she arrived at the Meyers’, remembers the plane ride. “It was so exciting,” she told me. Monica, along with her husband Ed, now runs the Harbes Family Farm in Mattituck on the North Fork of Long Island. She says the Meyers “ran a tight ship with a lot of rules, a lot of structure.”
The crew of 13 brothers and sisters settled into a familiar, though not challenging, rhythm and routine. Their mother, who was a seamstress, stayed at home to raise the children. They attended the parish school. All was well until tragedy struck again in 1969 when their adoptive mother died of lupus.
“The family fell apart,” Monica admitted. “Our dad remarried. There were other kids. There was favoritism. We all started going our separate ways.” At the age of 14, Monica moved to New York to live with her sister Pauline and her new husband. Those were difficult years.
But that was only because she moved to New York that she met her beloved Ed. It was Ed who led Monica to the Lord, who led her to every other good thing. They have four sons, four daughters and nine grandchildren.
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“Over the years, I had to forgive,” she recalled. “But we all have to go through forgiveness. Our family’s story is redemptive. It’s a little messy, but that’s life.”
This December 17, as every year, the original Bakers (two have since passed away) connect by phone or group SMS to remember and commemorate that dramatic and pivotal day back in 1962. It is no coincidence that it coincides with Christmas.
That’s because Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was the most famous adoption of all time, and far from the idyllic picture painted on maps or sung in songs.
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It’s a tough story — a single mother, an adoptive father, a baby born in the dirt far from fame and fortune, in a broken world with a king who felt threatened and wanted to kill the baby.
Christmas reminds us that life, like adoption, is unpredictable, often messy, also mysterious, and yet beautiful. It shows us that one child (or 9 of them!) can change everything for the better – and not just one day, but every day, and forever.
