Twenty Three Years ago today, this little person came into the world. She didn’t ask for what she got… but she came.
She was born at University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mommy was truly shooting for a Christmas baby. Mommy was also trying desparately to have one baby before her daddy, the baby’s grandpa passed on. Mom was too late, grandpa had died in August.
Let me tell you, that baby brought so much joy to this mommy’s world. Back then, mommy was still married to daddy…. she came home to live first with her paternal grandparents, in Moscow, Ohio. She came home on a cold, COLD, snowy winter day. What else would we expect for the child born on the winter equinox?
She was so perfect… I, the mommy, laid awake at night trying to hear her breath. I was so afraid she’d stop. I tried to breast feed her, but was encouraged the wrong ways by family members who swore I was starving her to death. My mother in law, sent my husband sneaking in the bedroom one morning before I was awake (he woke me up)… His mission was to take her and bring her out of the bedroom so that grandma could give the baby REAL food. I was 21 at the time, and a young 21… as I look back on it. I succumbed to the pressure and by the time my baby had her first check up, she was, as the peditritian said, “eating everything except steak and eggs…”
If I had to do it all again, believe me, I know a lot more now, and I’d do things a lot different. That was in 1983. A few months later in March of 84, we moved into our own trailer. I bought this 10×55 (1962 model) with my inheritance from grandpa’s passing. We rented a lot from my husband’s uncle, Walter Cooper. We lived on Neville-Penn Road in Felicity, Ohio.
Baby and I went for walks in the snow, sleet, and rain… oh, and in sunshine too. I took delight in her discovering her world. Butterfly’s were flutterbys. An elbow was an E-bow. She loved her daddy…. Daddy’s girl. She loved her cat, his name was Fred, but she called him Frell.
Lot’s of things have happened since then. For one thing she’s turned into this incrediable grown up person. She has been through hell… I could not protect her from everything, and believe me, being my first baby, it’s a wonder she ever learned to walk, let alone fall down and take a bump!
She is beautiful, and intelligent. A wonder to behold in any conversation. I love her so much. And best yet, I’m so proud of who she is. She’s too hard on herself, needs to realize she’s still young, even if she is “as old as she is right now’ …meaning, she’s as old as she’ll ever be…”
I love you, honey.. no matter where you go, or what you do! Mommy
