Birthday #46

Michael and Patty (1962)
(age 4yrs) (age 2yrs)


OK it happened, I woke up this morning another year older. It is bad enough to wake up another year older but did the sidewalk and street really need to be covered in a sheet of ice? Nothing as fun as slip sliding away down the street to one's car then slip sliding away down one's street in that car before the light of dawn to get to work. But I guess this Valentine's Day was not as bad as the one 46 years ago when my mother went into labor with me and had to be taken to the hospital during a snow blizzard only to be detained when the truck her father was to drive her to the hospital in was hit by another vehicle that lost control on the snow covered road outside their house as her father (my grandfather) put chains on the tires so he could drive that same truck up the very steep hills of Manayunk/Roxborough from where they lived in East Falls.

What did my mother do? The only thing she could do. She walked down the block in the blizzard to the local restaurant/pub and asked someone to drive her to the hospital. Good thing she got a ride because (as she told me one hundred million times over the last 46yrs) I was in a breech position and had to be turned (Oh, the pain she said) before she could give birth alone. (my father was in the Navy)

And as any "good guilt given" Irish mother could say, I should be eternally grateful for the life that I have today because of her suffering and sacrifice 46 years ago. (I love you Mom)