A true story with a happy ending!
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When we lived in California, we were quite close with a couple that my wife had met at her workplace – lets call her K and him T. We went to their wedding in 1996 and even took a weekend vacation with them. In 1997 K had a couple of miscarriages, so she was very cautious when she became pregnant in 1998. Even that caution, though, didn’t prevent the pregnancy from becoming a difficult one. Though she wasn’t due until late September, her doctor had her quit work in June.

The first Saturday after she was told to take it easy, we went over to their place so my wife – the paragon of hospitality – could fix dinner for them. When we got there, K was on the phone with the doctor as she wasn’t feeling right. After a short time, her husband took her to meet the doctor at the hospital, but told us they’d be back shortly as they’d been through this drill a few times before. Catherine tidied up their place and set about fixing dinner. Soon we got a call on the phone that we should eat when dinner was ready and that K&T would eat when they got home later in the evening. During dinner we got another call from T, asking us to stop by the hospital on the way home and bring the suitcase that was in their bedroom and to bring the video camera.

K gave birth early that Sunday morning to their little boy – 12 weeks early! We saw him that same day, the most helpless person I’ve ever seen. He didn’t even weigh 3 pounds. He couldn’t breathe on his own. He had 19 separate tubes and wires poking into him. Catherine is the boy’s godmother, even though K&T aren’t Catholic. The boy has a few lingering medical problems, but nothing very serious for the past few years. You wouldn’t know from looking at him that he was anything other than a perfectly ordinary little boy.

Last night, K, T and their little boy arrived for a visit. We hadn’t seen the little fellow in just over two years. He’s an absolute delight. I’ve never seen a child that age be so consistently good-natured and cheery, especially amazing when you consider he was in a strange house and got there pretty late at night – at least for him. He and our furry mutt hit it off famously, of course.

Hope your weekend is as good as mine promises to be!