My Father with his Newest Grandchild
This is an excerpt from my new book Nothing Bad Between Us:
Around midnight, with considerable trepidation, Steve walked past the pump house and across the yard the short distance to Mom and Dad’s new house to let them know that the contractions were becoming more regular and more frequent.
He knocked softly on the folks’ bedroom door. “I think it’s time, Dad,” he said apprehensively.
They made their way to our shack. I lay naked under a sheet. I had rolled my swollen body off to one side of the bed and was gripping the thin mattress with both hands as contractions ripped through my belly.
My father pushed the sheet aside. “Bring your knees up…like this,” he said. “I need to see what’s going on.”
“OK, you’re dilating nicely. But it’ll still be a while.”
“Please stay with me.” I gasped as I felt the throbbing begin again.
Between contractions, I looked around the dim lamp-lit room and smiled. I saw Steve with his camera, recording this miracle of ours. And both of my parents, stooped over my bed, attending to me, their fog lifted, at least for now.
At 8:00 the next morning, my father held Shareen in his bare hand, as he had held me twenty-one years earlier.
Ever so gently, he laid the baby on my chest. He placed his hand, still bloodied from the delivery, on my forehead and said quietly, “Well done, Marlena.”
(This week, that new baby turned 48.)
This was sure a time in your life when it was handy to have a doctor and nurse as a your father and mother.
What a beautiful story, Marlena! I can hardly believe that it has been 48 years! I remember meeting you and Shareen in Kansas – actually at my “now” dining room table. My parents were living in this house then. I had a new infant, too, – – – my Mary, born January 1972. I’m sure we compared notes. One big difference – you had Shareen at 21, and I had Mary at 31!
AnnaBeth, thank you for this. Yes, I was such a child, believing I was grown up. Now I’m old, knowing I’ll never be fully “grown up.”
Such an amazing story! Gpa and Gma have always been special to me, but knowing they were part of the team that brought me into the world makes them evermore special. ❤️
So much love.