December 5, 2004
Section: Region
Edition: All
Page: C1
MOURNERS BID FARWELL TO BABY BLUE, FIND MEANING IN HER LIFE
LYNDA COHEN Staff Writer, (609) 272-7257
Saturday was very familiar for Bill Ferrier.
The weather was the same as it was Jan. 17, when he went for a walk on the beach in Ventnor and found a bag that changed his life: Inside was the body of a baby, just a few days old, who had been strangled. On Saturday, Ferrier and his wife, Susan, were finally able to lay Baby Blue to rest at Seaside Cemetery in Mamora. About 60 people came to say goodbye to the baby girl that had touched their lives only after her death. Virginia Godlesky said fate brought her to Saturday's service.
Godlesky read about the Ferriers and Blue in The Press of Atlantic City last Saturday. A few days later, a song came to her and she worked on it with her music partner. Her only problem was, how to get it to the service. She called the only Ferrier in the phonebook and, on her second try, got in touch with Susan. Godlesky arranged a meeting with Bill so he could hear the song.
"We met in the parking lot at Kmart (in Cape May) and I gave him my Sony Walkman with the tape," Godlesky said.
"We had planned to have a girl from North Jersey sing at the funeral," Susan said. But a few days earlier, they received word that the girl was in the hospital.
"Bill said, `You're singing at the funeral,' " Godlesky recalled.
"It was like fate," Susan said.
The Rev. Ron Bretherick, of St. John's by the Sea in Ventnor, said he wanted people to take from the service two words: good and purpose.
"Purpose is, God brings good out of the evilness and the wickedness of man," he said. "Death is not the end of a crisis pregnancy."
Godlesky, who was pregnant and unmarried at 22, agrees. "I understand the desperation, but this is not the answer."
To that end, Bill and Susan Ferrier set up the Baby Blue Foundation, to teach young women how to avoid pregnancy and offer them options.
"They are the true heroes," Louise Houseman, senior investigator for the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's Office, said of the Ferriers. Houseman said that in 12 years on the job, she has never seen anyone come forward the way the Ferriers have.
"I'm a little sad to hear that," Bill Ferrier said. "Susan and I knew this was the only course of action."
On Saturday, the Ferriers completed their journey - at least the first part.
"I feel some peace," Bill said. "But there's still a lot of work to do."
The Baby Blue Foundation is a mentoring program for young women, both to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to offer alternatives to young pregnant women. Donations, which are not currently tax deductible, may be sent to:
The Baby Blue Foundation
PO Box 2408
Ventnor, NJ 08406.
IF YOU WANT TO HELP
Baby Blue has been laid to rest, but the investigation continues. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Major Crime Unit at (609) 909-7666. Information also can be given anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (800) 658-8477.
To e-mail Lynda Cohen at The Press: LCohen@pressofac.com
Illustration:
(1) The Rev. Ronald Bretherick speaks at the funeral Saturday for Baby Blue, at Seaside Cemetery in Marmora. Press color photo by Sharon Stabley
(2) Bill and Susan Ferrier mourn Baby Blue on Saturday at the strangled infant's funeral. Bill Ferrier found the girl on the beach last winter. The event prompted the couple to set up an organization to mentor young women. Press photo by Sharon Stabley
Copyright, 2004, South Jersey Publishing Company t/a The Press of Atlantic City