Stuff I Did Not Know

My mom was sick and dying. I went to stay with my dad through the rough time. He told me a tale I never knew.

He was at work. Mom had driven him that day because she had errands to run. We only had one car. He got a call at work, mom was in the hospital. Pregnant with me, she started hemorrhaging. She called an ambulance and my grandmother to watch my older brother. Grandpa called dad at work. Remember, this was the days before cell phones. 

Grandpa came to get dad and take him to the hospital. Dad remembered the worry, sitting in the waiting room, no information to be had. It was March. I wasn’t due until May. 

Finally the doctor came out. He said the situation was dire. They had to deliver caesarean. Dad was forced to make a choice right then. “If it comes to it, and it probably will”, said the doctor, “who do you want us to save, your wife or the baby?”. 

Dad looked at me. “I’m sorry, Joe, I immediately said your mom”. 

I don’t know the details of the next minutes. I was born, put in an incubator for a spell and was good. I have a tiny scar on my left shoulder blade from a slip of the scalpel. 

Mom always said in later years that scar could have been worth a fortune had the ambulance chasing lawyers been a thing in 1962. Instead they were just happy to have me.

I never knew just how truly she meant that until a few years ago. 

Here we are today. I’m still here. Just think, sixty years ago today, I might not have been.