A SAD, SHORT LIFE

Baby Who Died In Grandmother's Car Was Born Addicted To Heroin

Oakland -- Little Marcello Kendall never knew a day without struggle.

He was born with his mother's addiction to heroin and spent his first six
weeks of life in an intensive care nursery at Oakland's Highland Hospital.
There, he received morphine injections every four hours to soothe the
unbearable pain of drug withdrawal.

He was released from the hospital earlier this month with great hope.
Instead, he died last week -- alone and forgotten -- left behind in the
backseat of his grandmother's car while she worked an eight-hour shift at
an Albertson's warehouse in San Leandro, police said. He was 8 weeks old.

The nurses and volunteers who nurtured little Marcello through his drug
addiction -- only to learn of his senseless death -- want everyone to know
that he is not forgotten, that his short life did matter.

They want everyone to know he was loved.

"This was our baby," said one nurse on Tuesday. "His death just hit us in
the gut."

Volunteer In Mourning

Christine Kay, 56, a volunteer in the Highland Hospital nursery, said she
is in mourning for the wide-eyed baby with light skin and a shock of dark
hair, who had a special place in her heart because he looked just like her
son did when he was a baby. "It was a loss to all of us."

The Alameda County district attorney's office is considering whether to
charge Marcello's grandmother, Bretta Kendall, with child neglect or other
crimes in connection with Marcello's death Thursday.

Kendall, 48, who had legal custody of the child, left Marcello alone as she
worked as a mail supervisor. Kendall, who has worked at the warehouse for
16 years, told police she thought she had dropped him off at his baby
sitter's home.

She has refused to speak with Chronicle reporters. A woman who answered the
phone at her home Tuesday said, "We're not giving out any information."
Marcello's aunt also could not be reached for comment.

Tom Rogers, the assistant district attorney who is handling Marcello's
case, would not say if or when charges will be filed. "I'd rather do a
thorough review and make sure the charges we file are the correct ones," he
said.

Some of the nurses at Highland Hospital who coddled Marcello through his
first weeks of life contacted Rogers this week on behalf of the baby they
fear no one else stood up for. They spoke to The Chronicle on the condition
that their names would not be used.

Born A 'Drug Baby'

Marcello, a fussy infant known to nurses and volunteers as "Baby boy
Williams," lived in the intensive care nursery at Highland for six weeks
after he was born on June 22.

"He was a drug baby from the minute he was born," one nurse said.

Marcello's 18-year-old mother, whose name has not been released by
authorities, denied she had used drugs during her pregnancy, nurses said.
Toxicology tests later showed that Marcello was born with an opiate in his
system -- later confirmed by authorities as heroin.

The baby's father -- 25-year-old Marcello Kendall -- was described as a
"drug addict" by his mother, according to court documents filed in 2001.

Hospital staff members contacted Alameda County child welfare officials
after one of them looked closely at a photograph of the baby's parents that
Marcello's mother had left in his crib. A pipe and other drug paraphernalia
could be seen in the background of the picture, one nurse said.

Like other babies born with drugs in their system, Marcello's tiny body was
undernourished and ravaged by withdrawal. At first, he cried and hollered
incessantly, unable to be soothed.

"They are on cold turkey from the moment they are born, and that's pretty
miserable," said Eliene Bundy, 80, another volunteer. "Some of them just
need to be held, and he seemed to be having a hard time."

Parental Visits Dry UP

Nurses said Marcello's parents visited him often at first, but then the
visits tailed off. An aunt came to see him faithfully every day, while
Kendall visited him twice, nurses said.

Gradually, under the 24-hour care of nurses, the frail baby began to
improve. He responded to pain medication, gained weight and began to make
eye contact with his caregivers.

"He was becoming a real child," said Bundy, recalling how she watched a
nurse talk to him as he sat in an automatic swing. "She knelt down and she
was talking to him, and tweaking his chin. She got up and said, 'Well, he's
really getting some stimulation here, after all.' "

Lt. Steve Pricco of the San Leandro Police Department said Child Protective
Services awarded Bretta Kendall legal custody of Marcello. Kendall, who
also cares for an elderly father with Alzheimer's disease, has two teenage
sons living at home, Pricco said.

The nurses said they saw Marcello off from the hospital with hope for his
future, especially when Kendall told them she was going to hire a nanny for
the baby.

Then they heard the news that Marcello -- neatly dressed in pants and a
sweater, with a packed diaper bag sitting beside him -- had died in his car
seat. The cause of his death has yet to be determined.

Mixed Views On Punishment

The caretakers who rocked and sang to Marcello during his first weeks
disagree about what should happen to Kendall. Bundy feels sorry for Kendall
and hopes she isn't charged. Others think she should be held criminally
responsible.

But they all mourn for the baby who lived a short life with a rough
beginning and heartbreaking end.

"For the time you hold them, and you look at them, and you feed them,
you're giving them all the love that you've got," said Kay, breaking into
tears. "And I truly think that stays with them all their lives, whether
they die rapidly like this little boy or not. Every little bit of care and
love settles in their soul, so they don't go into the world unloved."