Tom

   Tom was born Oct 1, 1953       

     The men decided to bring the church calves down before spud digging started.  Tom was due soon and I assured Jess that he would only be gone twelve hours and nothing happened that fast.  He hadn’t been gone an hour when I realized that things were moving.  I thought if I kept busy the day would go faster.  I was sure that Jess would be back before I had to go to the hospital.  I picked the strawberries,  (I had a huge patch) washed the car and started to bottle apples.  All at once I realized I couldn’t wait any longer.  I phoned my mother and she said she would take care of the three boys and Rachel said she would go with me to the hospital if I drove.  Rachel had assisted with many births and I was grateful she was with me.     The nurse seemed to be in slow motion, as she prepared the admittance sheet.  Finally I told her, “I am going to have this baby right here if we wait any longer”.  She didn’t look convinced.  Rachel said we could fill out the paperwork later.  Tom was born half an hour later.  The nurse came and apologized to me.  She said that I didn’t look like I was big enough to have a baby.  Tom was a healthy baby and Jess didn’t know he had another son for eight hours. 

      We made a mistake when we named Tom, Richard Thomas.  We had planned on calling him Richard. There were four boys named Richard born, within just a few months.  We decided that would make four Richards in the same school.  We decided to call our son Tom.  We should have had the named changed on his birth certificate.

       Tom was the quickest and most active baby I had.  He was always on the go.  He walked when he was just a few days short of eight months. He climbed everything.  One day when I came in from the chicken coop, he was sitting on top of the fridge.  He was grinning from ear to ear, proud of what he had done.  He had climbed from a chair to the top of the stove and then stood on a kettle and from there climbed to the top of the fridge.  I prayed constantly that my kids would be protected, when I had to leave them.  When I went to the chicken coop during the summer, I would put Tom on the back lawn in his walker, that way I could see him by looking out the window.  He was a good baby and would play by himself.  The other boys were always around and would help watch him.