Reason for Elevators

The author's use of the umbrella caught my attention.  I think the author is using the umbrella  as a symbol to describe the short life span of an unborn child. Umbrellas' life span is pretty short, they break easily from harsh weather, they get lost often.

I can't help but wonder who the me is in this story.  If the me knows that the woman is caring a still born from stories told by others why is the woman reluctant to tell the me in the story.

The woman is jealous and mad at the world.  The woman made it known that she resented the living.  Here there are so many people living and breathing yet her child was taken away before ever having been born.  The woman hated the living regardless of their relationship to her, her family always felt the "elephant in the room".

The final paragraph leaves me to think that they woman birthed two children that day at the hospital.  Twins one born healthy and on still born.  The mother looks at her daughter on the child's unborn birthday and says: "tell me about the last time you were a victim".  The daughter forgives the mother but the daughter is actual just as much a victim as the mother and the dead baby.  The daughter is constantly picking up the pieces of her broken mother.  Unable to celebrate her own birthday because of the baby that never lived.  The daughter is just a reminder of the terrible event.