Sixteen years ago this morning I was preparing to leave the hospital after recovering from a scary bout of pre-term labor. An hour before they checked me out, the labor started up again and the doctor decided to let the baby come.
Six and a half weeks early.
At 5:14 pm on June 22, 1995, little Tesla came into the world. At 6lbs, 5.5 ounces, he was the biggest baby in the NICU – and also one of the weakest. He could not breathe without a ventilator. He could not really cry.
The doctors could not tell me if he would live. They hoped so, but premature babies don’t follow the regular rules. I would have to wait and see.
And pray.
And I did pray – alone and with nurses, with family and friends, and with anyone else who would lift their voice on little Tesla’s behalf. I appreciated their prayers then, and remember them gratefully now.
Because Tesla did live. And thrive. And grow. I have the tales to prove it. (We can no longer bathe him in a sink, and he’s wary to habaneros now, to name just two.)
June 22, 2011 – my son is 6’1″ and handsome both inside and out. He’s not without the obligatory herd of snarks, but he manages them at least as well as a teenage male can be expected to. My husband and I are proud of him, and proud to call him son.
Happy Birthday, Tesla. May your future be always as bright as it appears today. And be glad I didn’t name you Wolfgang Tiberius, as I threatened to.
Happy Birthday to an amazing young man. Hopefully it was an amazing one full of epic loot!
Great name and great homage to the scientist! Good luck with your historical fiction. And you’ve probably already heard us blab this to death on the Rock and FB, but Bernard Corwell will be our keynote speaker at the Gold Conference this year, speaking of historical fiction.
Gusto
Thanks, and I can’t wait to hear Bernard Cornwell speak. It’s rare to find a historical author keynote outside the genre conferences and I’m really looking forward to it!