DAY 9: Forty Years Ago Tonight

Forty Years Ago: A Challenging Birth

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Forty years ago tonight, the weather in Marion County was worse than it is today.

A heavy snow had fallen, the temperature hovered below zero, and the roads here were so treacherous that no one could get a woman in labor to the hospital.

Even the ambulance that was summoned as a last resort arrived far too late, having run off the road a number of times before reaching the laboring woman. Was there even such a thing as a four-wheel drive back then?

She experienced a very unplanned natural childbirth at home that night.  

She told me that once she realized she would not be able to get to the hospital in time she thought of all the women before us who had their babies at home as a matter of course, and she became very calm and brave and purposeful about it – at peace with her situation.

It was an unexpected challenge, but she rose to the occasion, as she always did throughout her life.

Pictured is that baby, whose 40^th birthday is today.

I wish him well.