Baskins was left reeling, four months pregnant with barely enough money to cover rent. <\/p>\n
Johnson, who lived in Fishtown<\/a>, kept showing up. He drove her to prenatal appointments and watched episodes of Better Call Saul with her. Sometimes he stayed the night in her guest room when she didn\u2019t want to face it alone.<\/p>\n In January, he was the one who drove her to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania<\/a> to give birth. In the months that followed, he visited every week. He folded laundry; he built the crib. He told Baskins the baby could call him \u201cDD,\u201d short for \u201cDiety-ous Dad,\u201d a joking play on \u201cgodfather.\u201d He calls her \u201cBaba.\u201d<\/p>\n The baby\u2019s father was Black, and to Johnson, who is also Black, it felt especially important that the baby grow up with another Black parent.<\/p>\n \u201cI never thought about it in a casual way, or a lackadaisical way,\u201d Johnson, 31, said. \u201cI fully planned to be the next parent, the third.\u201d<\/p>\n In July, Baskins, 33, and her daughter, who is 8 months, moved in to Johnson\u2019s home in Fishtown. <\/p>\n Baskins now works from that home, as a text counselor for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Johnson works as an inventory coordinator at a Kensington<\/a> hardware store and as a home health aide for his mother. Though they are not romantically involved, neither are dating other people right now. They are raising her daughter together. <\/p>\n \u201cWith him not being her biological father, I wouldn\u2019t necessarily feel like I need to consult him on all the parenting decisions,\u201d Baskins said. \u201cBut I would want to anyway. So it almost doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n The following, as told to Zoe Greenberg in separate interviews, has been edited for length and clarity and combined.<\/p>\n On telling Johnson she was pregnant <\/p>\n Baskins: I was very nervous because things weren\u2019t ideal, but I had been really wanting a baby for a long time. I knew he would potentially be worried about me. It was planned, but maybe not entirely well-thought-out.<\/p>\n Johnson: I was a bit apprehensive. I cannot make that choice for anyone else, obviously. But I thought circumstantially, they weren\u2019t ready. In terms of mental health, finances. My apprehension was known before the pregnancy \u2014 there are no real secrets between us.<\/p>\n More from ‘Life Partners’<\/p>\n On asking Johnson to be the godfather<\/p>\n Baskins: As soon as I knew I was pregnant, I wanted him to be her godfather. I knew I was going to need to rely on a community of people to raise this child. It wasn\u2019t going to just be me and my partner. If anything happened to both of us, he would literally step up and take care of her. <\/p>\n Johnson: They asked me together. I said yes, I\u2019d love to. I knew I was going to be present. <\/p>\n On deciding to move in together<\/p>\n Baskins: It wasn\u2019t something I jumped on. I really thought it over for weeks, maybe even months. I asked everyone in my support system, \u201cDo you think I should do this?\u201d I didn\u2019t want to put a big strain on our friendship. <\/p>\n Johnson: We talked about it when she was pregnant. At least I threw it out there as a thought. But it was just too hard of a time to try to make that kind of decision. <\/p>\n On committing to each other <\/p>\n Baskins: I said, \u201cIf we move in together, I\u2019m going to be here for at least five years probably before I can be fully independent … I worry about when that time comes. She\u2019s gonna be attached to you like you\u2019re her parent.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson: I tried to be properly responsible and consider all the factors. For myself, my answer was: at worst, everything will be okay.<\/p>\n Baskins: He does a little bit of everything. He\u2019s fed her. He puts her to bed. He changes her. He takes her out. He gives her baths. I just do that stuff more.<\/p>\n I think of myself as the primary parent, but I also refer to him as a co-parent. I don\u2019t have the exact same expectations as I might have had of my partner, but somewhere in the middle \u2014 not just a regular friendship either.<\/p>\n Johnson: I think of myself both as godfather and as Dad. I\u2019m proud to be the person that\u2019s here, day in and day out, in this paternal role. But in no way will I not also honor her true father. Her father was a great dude. We\u2019ll be as close as parent and child can be, but we\u2019ll have to navigate that as she gets older.<\/p>\n Baskins: I\u2019m not really interested in dating, but a time could come when that might be different.<\/p>\n Johnson: I\u2019d rather have stability and everything settled for a bit before I go back into dating. We\u2019re two grown adults who aren\u2019t partners, living with each other and co-parenting. If one of us wants to date and have someone that we\u2019re dating over, there\u2019s a lot to explain ahead of time.<\/p>\n On what the future might look like <\/p>\n Baskins: I would love to still be living in really close quarters. We have talked about what if we want to get a house around the same time? Could we get a house together? <\/p>\n Johnson: I think we\u2019ll probably still be living together. Or living in such close vicinity it\u2019s practically like we\u2019re living together.<\/p>\n This story is part of a series about life partners across the Philadelphia area.<\/p>\n If you want to share your story about who you\u2019re navigating life with, romantically or otherwise, write to lifepartners@inquirer.com. We won\u2019t publish anything without speaking to you first.<\/p>\n You are not alone<\/p>\n If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, help is available:<\/p>\n \tThe 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a>\u00a0offers help in more than 150 languages. Call or text 988.\u00a0En Espa\u00f1ol, marca al 1-888-628-9454. If you’re\u00a0deaf or hard of hearing,\u00a0call 1-800-799-4889.![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/QHXPZVOFX5D6NM7J7J6PJIDJFE.jpg\")
Christopher Johnson with Elysia Baskins\u2019 daughter, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026 in Philadelphia.Elizabeth Robertson \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/circle_outline_footer_light_theme.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Philadelphia Suicide and Crisis Center<\/a>\u00a0offers guidance and assessment about depression, self harm, hopelessness, anger, addiction, and relationship problems, at 215-686-4420.
\n\tVeterans Crisis Chat<\/a>\u00a0is available at 1-800-273-8255 or by text at 838255.
\n\tThe Trevor Project<\/a>\u00a0offers crisis support to LGBTQ\u00a0youth. Call 1-866-488-7386, text START to 678678, or start a\u00a0chat<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elysia Baskins and Christopher Johnson did not intend to raise a child together. They instantly got along when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116994,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-279676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-life-partners-best-friends-baby","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}