En hora buena

Yesterday was Sam's birthday. Sam is one of my dearly beloved grandsons. I remember so well when he was born. We all fell in love with him at first sight and thought his mother was so very brave, and beautiful and strong and noncomplaining. He was lucky also in his choice of a father and now his younger brother, Jacob, and his aunts, uncles, and cousins. Happy birthday Mr. Sam!

Tomorrow is the birthday of my daughter Blair. She was born in Bogota, Colombia, in the Clinica del Country. Birth is a humbling experience, making a lie of the pretence we hold that we are unique and strong. She was born around 4 in the morning. She and I were in the clinic for five days after she was born. I had my meals delivered to me from gourmet restaurants (even then Bogota had wonderful restaurants). I had a private nurse who gave me back massages. I was a heavenly preparation, a respite so to speak, from the arduous life to come. When we left the hospital, we pressed the elevator button (we were on the second floor) and we were getting on the elevator, the woman getting off the elevator was in labor, crying and moaning and gnashing her teeth. She was a very fancy Bogota and you knew that generally the only emotion she showed publicly was disdain and snobbery. Regardless of the fact that the most snobbish people in the world are rich South Americans (and some Spaniards), when we got off the elevator in the basement (which was by the parking lot), a family that was standing in front of the elevator was in a great state of mourning, obviously facing with great sorrow, a death of a loved one. It seemed so appropriate that short elevator ride, from first to basement floors, from birth to death. We drove home in our small car and I looked out the window, holding baby Blair, and saw women working in the streets, doing hard labor with their babies in shawls on their backs. I felt such kindred with them, it was a powerful feeling, to have shared this life changing experience. Their disadvantage and the disadvantage that their children would face probably played a very important role in driving me into a life of service to women's health. It was only later that I found that the love a mother has for a child can erase many of life's pains. It has been an interesting journey--being a mother--and one that has given me great joy. Happy birthday, Blair and Sam, kindred souls.