KAREN Palmer gave birth to her daughter, Jennifer, by caesarean section on August 3 1993, and held her as she died five hours later.
It’s an undeniably tragic story. But, as Karen tells it, it is also one that demonstrates how blessings can come out of tragedy, and how God shows His love for even the smallest of us, and gives us strength through the hardest times.
It also inspired a hymn by John Bell. Nearly 30 years on, Karen has published a book about the experience: Jennifer: a Life Precious to God. “It was something I’d wanted to write all that time,” she says, “Just because I thought it was an amazing story. There is no doubt that God was there with us and involved with us, and that has continued to give me strength at all sorts of other times in my life that have been difficult.” Karen is the wife of the Rev Gordon Palmer, now minister of Claremont Parish Church, East Kilbride; but at the time in his first charge at Ruchazie, part of the Greater Easterhouse area in the East End of Glasgow.