57 years ago today my life changed completely: I became a mother. Best thing that ever happened to me!
I've been thinking about Jeri's birth and early days today. I remember getting ready to go to the hospital, looking around our apartment and realizing that things were never going to be the same.
Childbirth was really pretty easy, as I recall. No drugs, even though she was breech (which nobody had told me before I went into labor!) After she was born they took me to recovery and took Jeri to the nursery and forgot to tell Walt that she had been born. I finally asked the nurse if he was going to come in and she went out and told him -- he had been imagining all sorts of terrible things going wrong, when it all went right.
She was a good baby and I think in her first month between my sister Karen (who was a photographer) and me, we took 200 pictures of her sleeping in all of her outfits! The only time I remember her being not a good baby was when I wanted her to be so good. She was named for my friend, Sister Anne and when Sister Anne was in California, we drove to LA to see her and I could introduce Jeri to her. Jeri cried the entire time we were with her. I was so disappointed. However, Sister Anne wasn't upset...and sent her a Dr. Seuss book for her first birthday.
I remember singing "Scarlet Ribbons" to her when she was growing up and it wasn't until I read my diary tonight that I realized I'd been singing the song to her ever since she was weeks old. In July 1966 I wrote "I've sung 'Scarlet Ribbons' so many times I could sing it in my sleep"
She saw her first Gilbert & Sullivan operetta (Pirates of Penzance) at 3 months at an outdoor performance by the Lamplighters. Little did we know that theater would be in her life all of her life.
It's been such a wonderful 57 years. So many wonderful things I remember. I loved her relationship with my mother and her ability to fly out here from Boston several times a year just to see her. In fact she saw her just a couple of weeks before she died.
The one thing I am very sorry for is that I couldn't give her a sister. Every time I went to the hospital to give birth (they didn't let you know the gender of your baby before it was born in those days!) Jeri always hoped I'd bring home a sister for her, but after four attempts filled our house with brothers, we gave up trying for another girl. Which makes her special because she's our only girl.
Happy birthday, Jeri. We love you and we are sorry not to be able to share your birthday with you, but know that you have made the last 57 years of our life very happy!
Oh my god...I'm so old I have a child who is "pushing 60"!
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
newborn Jeri in the hospital
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