Sumith Prasad
Netflix’s period drama film ‘Joy’ revolves around the invention of in vitro fertilization (IVF), which helps Lesley and John Brown welcome a baby girl named Louise Joy Brown to the world. Similar to the movie’s depiction, the couple tried to have a child for years before seeking the help of Robert Edwards, Jean Purdy, and Patrick Steptoe. Even though several women had become pregnant because of the three pioneers’ experiments, none had given birth to a baby until then. Lesley gave birth to Louise on July 25, 1978, making her and John the first couple in the world to have a baby by IVF!
Lesley and John Brown Dealt With Overwhelming Spotlight Following Louise’s Birth
The immediate period after Louise Joy Brown’s birth was a rollercoaster ride for Lesley and John Brown. The two working-class Brits from Bristol, England, became the focus of the whole world. The couple were involved in press tours that took them from one country to another. They visited Japan and the United States with their beloved daughter, who was nothing short of a miracle for everyone who showed up to see and talk to them. The spotlight was not easy for the husband and wife, who had been leading ordinary lives as a truck driver for British Rail and a local farm worker, respectively.
Lesley, in particular, found the attention overwhelming as a “shy” and “quiet” woman. Still, she wanted to help advocate for the groundbreaking invention that made her a mother. “Mum was just so grateful to Patrick and Bob; she wanted to give back, and she knew that showing the world I was ‘normal’ was the way to do that. Dad did most of the talking,” Louise told The Telegraph. It doesn’t mean that John was immensely comfortable with the limelight. In an interview with The Washington Post in 1979, he expressed his wish to raise his daughter “like everyone else” and lead their lives as “normal working-class people.”
Four years after their firstborn’s birth, Lesley and John welcomed another daughter named Natalie, the 40th baby conceived by IVF. Irrespective of the media attention they received, they found a way to give their daughters an ordinary childhood. The couple returned to the spotlight when Natalie became the first IVF baby to give birth to a child of her own in 1999. They remained an integral part of both of their daughters’ lives. When Louise married Wesley Mullinder in 2004, they surrounded their beloved daughter and shared the joy of the occasion with her.
John Brown Passed Away at the Age of 64
John Brown passed away in December 2006 at the age of sixty-four after battling lung cancer. His death was unbearable for Louise Brown, who was pregnant with her first son, Cameron, at the time. She gave birth to the boy around two weeks after her father’s passing. “My sister has two children, but it seems so unfair [that] Dad didn’t get to see Cameron. He was only two weeks short of meeting him,” she told BBC. Louie even tried to find comfort in her child during this highly painful period. “I’m the spitting image of my dad, and now I see so much of my dad in Cameron. It has been the most amazing comfort,” she told Manchester Evening News.
Considering the close bond Louise shared with John, it is unsurprising that she named her son “Cameron John Mullinder” to honor and celebrate his memories. In the absence of his grandfather, Lesley remained with the young boy while he was growing up. Louise described her mother as the “wonderful babysitter” of her firstborn. As the grandmother, she looked after the kid when his mother went to work every day. Lesley even taught her daughter how to bathe Cameron. Amid these blissful occasions, there were also moments of sadness in the pioneer mother’s life. She found it difficult to read anything that was written about her daughter negatively.
Lesley Brown Died After Spending Years as a Grandmother
Lesley Brown passed away on June 6, 2012, also at the age of sixty-four, in Bristol Royal Infirmary with her family surrounding her. She died suddenly after suffering from septicemia, a severe bloodstream infection she sustained while being treated for gallstones. Her passing immensely affected Louise Brown, who had nurtured a strong relationship with her mother. In the days that followed the demise, she was surrounded by her sister, Natalie, and elder half-sister, Sharon, to cope with the same. At the time of Lesley’s death, she lived only ten minutes away from her firstborn’s house in Bristol.
“It was such a shock,” Louise told Daily Mail about Lesley’s demise. “When we were told there was nothing they could do, my sisters and I made the decision to switch off her life-support, and we were all with her to say goodbye and hold her hand at the end, which made it easier,” she added. While dealing with her loss, Louise also had the responsibility of informing her son, Cameron, about the passing of his adored grandmother. Since Lesley used to pick him up from school frequently when she was at work, breaking the terrible news was not easy for her.
Even though several years have passed since Lesley died, Louise continues to meet people who talk to her about the former’s inspiring determination to become a mother. As an advocate of in vitro fertilization herself, the first IVF baby remains committed to celebrating her mother’s role in opening closed doors for women across the world to nurture children of their own with the help of the procedure.
Read More: Where Was Netflix’s Joy Filmed?
