Last week I emailed both my parents checking to see if either of them had interest in writing some guest posts for my blog this month. While having some help meeting the blog every day goal of the month was part of my inspiration, I also happen to think both of my parents are great writers. Over the years my Dad has written occasional Sunday morning musings out to his children and siblings and while they range greatly in topic, some weekly updates, some philosophical conundrums, they are always full of wit and wisdom. This past summer during a bike trip to PA with his older brother, my Dad finally started his own blog. You can find him over at BikerBrother.
As for my Mom, she has a strong creative gift and has written a number of lovely poems over the years, my guess is that my older brother Tim gets a lot of his poetic talents from her. Hopefully I will wheedle her into coming up with something for this blog too. Anyways without too much further ado and preambles, here is my Dad’s post:
A Glimpse of Abby’s First Two Years on This Good Earth
I don’t think any of you regular readers of this blog met Abby until we moved to Indiana when Abby was 10 and most of you didn’t meet her until years later. So when Abby invited me to do a “guest” blog I couldn’t think of a better thing to do than to give you a small window into the first 2 years of her life.
First a caveat. On this blog you are used to seeing high quality photos taken by Abby’s fine digital camera. These pictures were taken by a $24.95 Kodak 110 pocket camera. We were not impoverished but chose to spend our money on other things. At least it was convenient in that it fit nicely in Mom’s purse. So don’t try to enlarge the pictures – they only get worse.
This first picture is unfortunately undated but I’m guessing late September 1983. You can tell Abby is going to arrive a fully developed infant. It’s a profile of her mother taken from the dining room looking out the back door at our house on Blue Rock road.
Abby was born a few days later with a fine crop of reddish-copper hair. At her birth the obstetrician said “just because she arrived at 9lb 15oz doesn’t mean she’s going to be a 300 lb linebacker.” To which the attending nurse said “only if she wants to be”.
Here’s some of Grandma Hess’s diary the day of your birth.
- “John called about 4 o’clock. I went over and they left for the hospital about 5 o’clock. Timothy woke very happy and was an excellent little boy. We went to Sewing Circle. I took casseroles. John called at church when we were getting ready to leave. Abigail Marie arrived about 12:18 noon. She weighed 9 lb. 15 oz. She has reddish hair.”
Then this entry the next day:
- “Papa and I went in to see Lois and Abigail. She surely is a nice bright baby.”
At 6 months pulling Daddy’s beard. Look at those curls!
Two year old Abby found her calling to be a librarian early.
Mennogirl 