THE BABY IS 40!

Our first baby!

Where did the time go? It was 40 years ago that I walked into my office in Manhattan, only to get a call from TLW (The Little Woman) that she was in labor with our first child! It was a Monday morning and she was scheduled to see her doctor for her checkup, so things seemed to work out.

We were just married a few months when I accompanied TLW (The Little Woman) on a visit to the doctor. I sat in the outer office as she went in by herself, and when she came out told me I was going to be a Daddy! Not that she was pregnant, or SHE was going to be a Mother, but I was going to be a Daddy! How’s that? And now she was in labor!

It is a very interesting if not sad adventure raising a child with a disability, but it does have it’s greater moments too. My daughter Ellen is an independent soul, full of life and spirit, but captured by her disability, which is in essence only her parent’s disability. It is not unusual for her to be recognized for an achievement that she thinks nothing of, and will express it in some way. For instance there was an award she won in her day program, and I think it was for letting her teacher live. She was escorted to the front of the assembly to get her certificate, one of which she was roundly applauded for, with the administration all smiles, Ellen get the award, and immediately tossed it on the floor.

Being independent, she is NEVER told what to do, like the day she decided she didn’t like the music at the local library and so we escorted her out, only then she decided to stage a Martin Luther King like sit-in and protest. There was no budging her, and when she was ready she got up!

She has as an infant helped herself to toys in stores that as I carried her out she has taken. Getting to the car I discover one day a doll in her hand, and I had to sneak it back into the store!

Then there was the day we discovered she was holding out on her parents! It seems we got this tape one day of her school program as a young child. In it there was some kind of show, and Ellen and her fellow participants each had something they had to do. If prior to seeing this someone had told us she could do it, we would have laughed at them silly. She actually got up off a chair on cue, picked up some large rings and placed them into a receptacle! TLW and me almost fell on the floor from the shock!

But perhaps the greatest chapter in her life came when she was a young teenager in Virginia Beach. We were on vacation, and hungry so decided to go to this famous restaurant that specialized in crab legs. She didn’t want to sit, so we decided to go somewhere else, and she got angry that we were leaving, and as we did she smacks this poor guy on the back of his head as he was about to eat from his plate. He never knew what hit him!

But Ellen is a loving person, she loves people, will give you hugs and pats on the back, will smile and try to talk to you, as long as you don’t tell her what to do.

Today she is 40 years old! Today she doesn’t have a clue as to what today is, nor does she care. But TLW and I do, and so we will celebrate it for us.