Have you ever had a day that turned out nothing like you expected? Accidents and illnesses are renown for necessitating change. It is likely you’ve experienced unexpected changes to plans for parties, weddings, and vacations more than a few times. As a midwife I suspended all expectation for the days I worked. The unpredictability of what challenges I might face through the day could be both stressful and exciting. I remember well the exhilaration of attending a birth in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital as well as the heartache of placing a stillborn baby into another anguished mother’s arms. Her thankfulness for my kindness is balm for the ache. Through her grief she still saw my love. Possibilities are endless.

This episode is full of surprises, demonstrating this profound unpredictability. It also suggests how uniquely equipped health care providers are with their skills of assessment and adaptation in the face of unexpected occurrences. The transferable wisdom in these skills is recompense for the emotional cost of this sometimes-traumatic unpredictability. The Turners’ trauma of having to perform an emergency postmortem caesarean section is balanced by the satisfaction of saving the life of the baby. Their adaptation from wedding guests to emergency responders, then calmly proceeding to the wedding after changing clothes is sometimes all in an unpredictable day’s work for super hero health care providers.

Before her wedding, Trixie talks with her brother about the unanticipated joy after trauma. She recalls her past despair and wishes that she had known then of the love and happiness ahead. Matthew talks of feeling like life had ended with the death of his first wife, with no vision of the potential joy of loving and marrying again. Even the simplicity of a missing tiara, provides an unexpected opportunity for the loving creation of Trixie’s pill hat headpiece.

Sister Monica Joan, as ancient and wise as she is audacious, envisions a wedding reading focused more on love and provides that delightfully surprising alternative without hesitation. And finally, the inconveniently timed fire at the planned location of the wedding reception opens the seemingly quixotic possibility of Trixie and Matthew’s reception in the streets of Poplar. All these adaptations becoming unexpected, love filled alternatives.

While no one can yet begin to process the possibilities after the tragic loss of Lizzy Yu, I do not doubt there will be joy ahead for Lizzy’s family. Lizzy’s newborn daughter lives and will provide laughter and joy to her father and grandmothers as she thrives within their love. There will always be grief, but joy can break through with love.

This season opened with Poplar divided by racism, hate and fear but ends in a community brought together by love. That is the message of hope it conveys. As we close out this 2023 season of Call the Midwife, the United States remains in frantic transition with an unpredictable outcome. For some, it seems safer to return to previous times. It is difficult to imagine any national joy ahead while mired in fear, hate, and anxiety. But my midwifery wisdom enables me to envision hopeful possibilities and the knowledge that progress may be slow, may even halt but cannot be reversed. If progress can be conceived as seeking of kindness and fairness, and fairness as love, the possibilities are infinite. Conceived in love, a fairer safer future will emerge and suit us all better than anything we could have imagined, like a tastefully modern pill box hat rather than an ancient tiara or a party in the street with everyone included.

"Go where love is, that is where life is," says the great late philosopher Lizzy Yu. I dedicate these words to all who have sacrificed their lives to the reproduction of the human race. May they rest in peace, power, and love.