Nine a.m. one warm June morning a little person entered this great big world.  Back in those days….25 years ago, it was a rarity to know ahead of time if the baby on the way was a girl or a boy.  In this particular case, because I was a “high risk” Gravida V Para VI…I had the notorious amniocentesis test run by by the obstetrician for the knowledge of whether the baby was healthy or not.  So unnecessary as all babies deserve to be born whether or not.  And she indeed arrived on that morning in perfect condition in the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, better known as its acronym of GBMC.  We did learn per the aforementioned test that the baby was a little girl. I learned the news on Valentine’s Day in 1986 when the baby’s Dad was on a business trip in Paris.  The news flew across the ocean. Oh we were so excited.  Now, the most unusual thing about this birth in my recollection, is that she being the fifth baby in our “little family”, that she was the only child that her dad was able to witness coming into the world.This too was a new oddity as in 1986 this was the upcoming new idea in child birthing.  The little one came and the doctor handed her directly to her Father. He was the first to hold her in his strong hands…I could see his face just amazed at the event that he beheld.  I was the weary one, and so it was indeed a comfort for me to watch her Dad perform that honor.  First one to hold.

Now, 25 years later on this very day, a warm day in June, the little girl, now a grown woman traveled to Pittsburg to hold her Father’s hand as he lay quietly in a hospital bed in the ICU trying to recover from a massive stroke that came the night before.  How was she to know that 25 years after her entrance into the world, she would return to the same setting that ushered her in and help her Dad through the ordeal of fighting for his life? Her birthday gift today is the gift of  a little more time to spend with her Dad and to wish him a happy Father’s Day in person.  First one to hold.  Hold on tight! There is so much more to come.