Forty years ago today, at 3 AM, Banjo Man and I made the wild 65-mile trip to Coeur d’Alene when I was in labor with this guy.  He was 6 weeks early so we weren’t at all prepared.  We had very little gas in the car, but we found a gas station in the middle of nowhere and paid the owner $3 to open the tank and bought $2 of gas, because we only had $5.

I really didn’t want to give birth in that old blue Datsun.

The day before we’d had a football party that began at 9 AM with a breakfast brunch, in honor of the New England Patriots game being televised and a friend who would be in the stands in Foxboro holding up a sign for us.

Everyone we knew wanted to see the sign.  And we were not disappointed.  “HI GLEN IN HOPE IDAHO” was clearly visible many times.  We cheered.  A lot.

The party continued throughout the day, ending with Retired Mountain Lady playing the piano and all of us gathering around to sing.

A few hours later, when everyone had gone home and we were cleaning up, things got a little intense.  This was a high risk pregnancy and there were…issues.

But Son #2, aka Will, aka Story Man was born around 6:15 AM and was in pretty good shape for a preemie.  He would stay in the hospital for more than a week, but he was going to be okay.

And now he is 40.  The miracle pregnancy turned into a wonderful man who brings joy everywhere he goes.

I am so grateful.

Happy Birthday, Will! 

Horseback trip to Moose Lake, July 2017.