She remembers how gauche she felt that night. Her childhood friend kept her company while her husband was out playing hockey. Every fifteen minutes the pain started. They giggled wondering IF THIS WAS IT finally. She was due today, November 6th and now it was well passed twilight.
Her friend had not had a child yet and so they chatted and giggled a lot. At midnight when her husband returned she did not want to worry him and needed him to have a good night’s sleep in case they left early in the morning to go to hospital.
She remembers her grandmother, a midwife, had said many times that if you go to sleep and the pain wakes you up, then the labour has really started. She went to bed after her husband fell asleep and tried to sleep. She woke up every fifteen minutes, then every ten …then every five. She woke up at 6 having made her way to the end of the bed somehow. “How the heck did I get here?”she thought.
Still worried to be sent home from hospital, she phoned a friend who had two children. She KNEW! And gently, she advised her to wake up her husband to get to hospital.
Her colleagues at the office had two bets going on (1) for the gender and (2) for the weight. Lots of commotion for her first newborn.
cold winds
pushed them to destination
…so they hoped
rain clouds hovered
threatening to some
exciting to them
woman winced
every curve
too many potholes
man nervously sang
I Can’t Get No
Contraction
laughing hurt her
oh the silliness of nerves
what awaited them
Morning brought them to noon and a beautiful boy with the biggest blues eyes was born at 8 pounds. On this seventh day of November, the seventh grandson in the Gagnon family and second grandchild in the Roberts family was born.
He was long awaited to mother and father and so worth the wait.
eyes
swimming in blue
warms her heart
eyes
filled with love
never-ending
swimming in blue
looking up at her
so much love
warms her heart
forty years later
still
…not the end…
(c) Tournesol’18/11/07
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
Love your memory of that time 40 years ago.
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They are clear as day. Something my mother replayed to me every year as well. I loved hearing about my birth and feel it important to tell my children how special theirs was too.
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