1942 Cradle adoptee Annabelle Loud Redway had an unusual childhood. Her father, Gordon Loud, was a prominent archaeologist with the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute who led major excavations in Israel and Iraq. When Annabelle and her brother John, also a Cradle baby, were young children, the family lived in a town outside of Cairo, Egypt. The Louds returned to the U.S. when Annabelle was eight and settled in Washington, D.C.

It was there that she met her future husband, Laurance Redway, through a mutual friend. “One day she appeared in my mother’s living room with my friend,” Larry recalls, “and her Dalmatian.” The couple had a long distance romance while Annabelle was finishing her studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and Larry was working for Procter & Gamble in upstate New York. They married in September of 1963 and raised two daughters in D.C.

Larry says that Annabelle always knew she was adopted and that The Cradle was always extremely important in her life. In 2002, she purchased a brick in memory of her parents for The Cradle’s courtyard. Five years later, she and Larry came for a visit. “It was the first time I was there and for the first time I became aware of just how complicated adoption is,” he observed. “Helping people make difficult decisions and finding the right families for babies is so important.”

Annabelle was a passionate and generous Cradle supporter until her death in 2013 at age 70 following an illness. She and Larry were just a couple months’ shy of their 50th anniversary. He takes comfort in the fact that his daughters live in D.C. with their families. He has four grandchildren and still works full-time as a financial advisor.

Larry also continues to support The Cradle, most recently as a lead donor to our 2017 Giving Tuesday campaign. “I feel that I never would have met Annabelle if it wasn’t for The Cradle,” he says. “And I think the work you do is critical.”

Thanks to Larry and more than 200 other generous friends of The Cradle, together we raised over $100,000 on #GivingTuesday, November 28, 2017.