A 10 Pound Surprise (36 Years Ago)

This is a nice in-between day to reminisce about my sister and her birth 36 years ago. She turned 36 two days ago and I am about to have my 52nd birthday. We are 16 years apart. The photo above is of us celebrating our birthdays this week with my parents on a very cold day in Birmingham where Tricia lives now with her husband and children. The title of this post is the same title I used for an essay I wrote in 10th grade. I wrote it after Trish was born. She weighed 10 lbs 5 oz. when she was born 10 days late all those years ago.

I remember my mom and dad sitting down with my brother and me one summer day back in 1973. She asked us if we'd like to have a little brother or sister. At the time, I was 15 and my brother was 12. First thing I said was "Are we going to adopt?" At least I remember it that way. The next day I kept looking over at Joe and thinking "did they really say mom's going to have a baby?" It seemed unreal. Back then it was not as common for a woman to have a baby at 36. It happened but not like it does these days.

On January 10, 1974, my mom came into my room in the middle of the night because her water had broken. She was leaving for the hospital and came to say good-bye. My grandmother came to stay with us. I had to get up and go on to my high school and was very distracted all day to say the least. My lit teacher kept asking me to go call family to find out what was going on. She was a comfort to me that day. I arrived home from school to find out my mom and dad had just had a baby girl. That evening we went to visit and I'll never forget the sight of Trish in that incubator. Life went on and I watched my sister as a baby, toddler, child. I got married when she was 5 years old and then moved out of the country some years later. I didn't get to see her do a lot of things as she grew and developed. But I was glad she was home with my folks as I was away and after my brother got married. It just seemed that our home was more settled, stable, and always the same because she was there "keeping my parents young" as people used to say to them!

Now she's 36 with three children of her own. Because of our big difference in age, my parents have grandchildren from ages 25 down to age 3. Pretty cool, I think!