My Granny Vera recalls the night when my Mom called and said it’s time. It was 11:45 p.m. on the 23rd of February in the middle of the night…way before cell phones were in the picture. The due date was two days earlier, but Mom really wanted to have me on my Dad’s birthday, the 24th. Granny Peggy went by and picked up Granny Vera and they headed for Wichita Falls. They expected Mom and Dad to already be at the hospital. But, they weren’t…they had waited for them to arrive.Mom was looking out the window, watching and waiting, then when the moms pulled up she grabbed her coat and was out the door. Dad drove and on the one-way street to the hospital he kept stopping for every red light. Granny Peggy finally said, “Dennis, I think it’s okay to run the red lights, it’s two in the morning.”
All the way to the hospital Mom didn’t have contractions and was afraid that it might be a false alarm. But, upon arriving the contractions resumed. A nurse introduced herself to them, “I’m your nurse and I’ll be with you until 7:00 in the morning”. My Mom thought, “Well, I won’t be here that long.” Well, 7:00 a.m. came and went.
The grandpas had plenty of time the next morning to get there. In the middle of a contraction, my Mom squeezed the molasses out of Granny Vera’s hand and kicked up one of her legs. Dad saw a little bit of blood and was oughta there. Mom remembers being transferred from gurney to gurney, a bright light, some gas and that’s it! I was born at 9:34 a.m. (I’m not even gonna tell you how bad they had to cut her.) Everyone had gone to breakfast except Grandpa R.T. Mom roused and looked at him. He said, “Sis, it’s a girl. And we can’t send her back! She’s too big.”
