Ten Years Ago, Today

Yes, today's Birthday Festival is turning into a two-day event with baggage. Thank goodness that the Matron and her husband both have full-time jobs or they'd be bored silly! The overnight has been set in motion and the house is FULL of little girls singing songs from Rent. Sorry, parents.

Yesterday's post was birthday tribute enough, so today, the Matron, in the 4.6 minutes allotted for blogging, will tell a story of a different sort, and feature a new player!

The Matron's father died when the Youngish Miss was a brand new mama. She was nursing four month old Stryker when the family patriarch, her uncle, called to tell her that her father had had a heart attack and died within minutes.

Stryker was the only grandchild he ever met. The Matron has ONE picture. One. She can see it from her desk and is looking at it right now: the beaming proud-to-the-rafters grandfather and the cradle-capped imp. Hi, Dad. Miss you, still. Always.

It just so happens that the Youngish Miss (and currently, the Matron) adores her stepmother very much, the woman her father left behind. She's wonderful! And if the Matron misses her father? The stepmother has really never recovered. Truly.

So. . . when newly pregnant with Scarlett, the Matron called her stepmother with the good news!

Youngish Miss: "My due date is August 11th."

Stepmother: "You'll have that baby on my fiftieth birthday, as a gift from your father. I'm just sure."

Fast forward a few sweaty, chunky, pukey months.

When the doctors all clucked about Scarlett being two weeks overdue, the Matron reminded them that she'd been nursing another child when she got knocked up again and sometimes, well, we can't be exact. As long as she subjected her belly to probing, Medicine concurred that baby could bake till she was good and ready to see her mother.

When the Matron went into labor at noon on August 26th, she prayed for things to go at just the right pace. Even as she suffered, she prayed for that baby to wait and when the doctor offered to break her water around 11 pm and move things along, she tried to kill him.

You see, the Matron wanted to see what would happen. Would someone --nature? God? Her father? -- give her stepmother this, this most improbable of gifts, a message from the love of her life?

Scarlett Sophie (after John's Mom) was born at 1:02 a.m. on August 27th, the same day her step-grandmother turned 50.

When the Youngish Miss called her stepmother at 4 a.m. to tell her the incredible news, her stepmother said, in the way you'd roll your eyes over somebody's shenanigans: "Your father is a piece of work!"

Thinking of you today, Dad. Thanks for that present.