I woke up this morning thinking about my youngest daughter…of course, today is her birthday. She was born in 1978, eight years after my first born daughter and four years after her bother, my son. She has been on my mind all day as little trinkets of the past flowed through my mind. So long ago, another life time, another me…I was married to the kid’s father, we were living in Memphis Ten, and I worked as a manager at Red Lobster on Summer Ave.

I went into labor weeks early…it was unexpected therefore a call for an ambulance was needed. The kid’s dad wasn’t home; the era of cell phones had not tumbled through time. There was no computer, no twitter, and no wireless connections…just the phone that connected us to the hospital. As I was being loaded into the ambulance he came home…the smell of alcohol was on his breath as he joined me in back for the “long” ride to the hospital. It seemed lengthy as it would for any expectant mother that was moments from bringing a part of her into this world. Her first breath came in the hospital, however, I was still on the stretcher provided by the ambulance…I was lucky not to have had a long labor…not with her, her sister, or their brother. Rapid labor was what they called it at the time.

None of that mattered once my daughter was placed in my arms…I knew at that moment everything there was to know about unconditional love…and I never forgot it.

Today she is a young woman with three children of her own…all boys. Many things have changed from that moment in time, but every birthday that slides by I think back and remember the little things that made my heart feel as if it would burst so full of love…her first step, first word, and first sentence…“I love you toooooo much.”

That was so long ago; another life, another me.

Sandyz

My son, Santa, and my baby girl… (She was afraid of the bearded man.)

My baby girl today…maybe she celebrated her final days of being single a bit too much…she is so beautiful