"Where were you born?"

 Today I turned again to my book of writing prompts/ideas (642 Things to Write About-Young Writer's Edition - I bought when I was teaching young writers, but a lot of it works for adults too), not being able to think of a good topic. I turned to "Where were you born? Using your imagination, describe the day you were born."

I was born in Seattle, in August 1953. My parents had been married for a year, but they had known each other since they were children. They were from the same small town in Minnesota and their mothers were good friends. My dad's parents and brothers had moved to Seattle during World War II in order to work in the defense industries there. 

In 1952, my mother and grandmother visited my dad's family in Seattle. By then my dad was out of the Navy and had joined his parents there. 

My uncle Don, who was a few years older than my dad told me years later, "Your mother and her mother came to visit. Trev [his wife] and I went away for the weekend. When we came back, they were engaged." He said sounding both a little bewildered and affronted. Don liked to be in charge.

Anyway, my parents were married not too long after that, back in Minnesota. I was born one year and one week after the wedding. 

That day might have been sunny, even in Seattle. Since it was 1953, my father would have been elsewhere, fathers not being allowed at their children's births. I imagine him going back to their little house, waiting for a phone call. He picked up his cello and began to play. He probably would have played some hymns, but I'm going to imagine him playing some of the Bach Cello Suites. [If you'd like to hear a bit of one of the Suites played by the incredible Yo-Yo Ma, click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1prweT95Mo0]

When the phone call came, telling him he had a daughter and his wife was resting comfortably, he took a deep breath and said a prayer thanking God. Then he drove to the hospital to see us. 

I was a large baby with quite a lot of dark hair and a black eye, thanks to the doctor. But to my parents I was the most wonderful thing in the world at that moment. I know that because that's how I felt when each of my children was born.