Happy New Year 2018!
No one asked, so I asked myself: when was your favorite New Year’s Day? I didn’t have to think long, 1960 stood out above all others.
I was a bride of four months, Dan was midway through his senior year at Southwestern State College in Weatherford Oklahoma, and I was a month away from celebrating my 20th birthday. So, what was so special about ringing in that new year?
My mother’s condition.
We were at Dan’s folks for New Year’s Eve and Dan’s uncle offered us a job helping him inventory his hardware store. So, I was counting nuts and bolts when the call came.
It was my dad. He said something like, Mama’s in the hospital and she’s having a hard time. “It’s rough,” he said.
So I worried until the next phone call came a few hours later, New Years 1960. “Its a girl!” he said. “And Mama’s doing okay.”
That New Year’s Day, my little sister was born. Pretty special, don’t you think?
When we headed back to Weatherford the next day, we took the long way and dropped by the hospital so I could give my mom a hug and peek in the nursery window. That baby tucked in the nurse’s arms is a clear picture in my mind today, 58 years later. I didn’t get to hold Debbie that day. So we saved our pennies for gas money the following week and made another trip home so I could get acquainted with my sister… and begin doing my part to spoil her. (She’s eighteen months older than my first born and I lived to regret some of that spoiling… not really!)
Happy New Year, Debbie! And happy birthday!!!
(Someday I’ll tell you why I’m so glad she’s twenty years younger and not two!)
