Saturday, September 29, 2012

The luck that follows us.

(Brian and his college friend Kalen Williams, no relation. They had known each other ever since college, at U.C. Riverside.)


Brian seemed to be surrounded by good luck and good people all his life.

I was thirty eight, an old mom when I had Brian.  We had returned to California after our graduate school days in Florida, and were settling back into a normal routine. I felt old and discouraged at how difficult everything had been, finishing school, finding a place, finding a job. I had just heard about my pregnancy when my mother came to visit me from Italy.  What a great help Mom was, with the baby, with the house, with the other children.  Right after Brian was born, in April, I found out that my work status might be jeopardized  because I could not finish the current year, and to become permanent I would have to work an additional year.


 The teaching job at Belvedere Junior High started out as temporary and was to become permanent after three years, with all the rights that went with that status.

As luck would have it, when I explained to the administration at Belvedere that I didn't want to leave my newborn yet, they arranged for me to bring Brian (and Mom) to school, moving me to a room across from the teachers' lounge where Mom and Brian could hang out, and I was able to nurse him every few hours and have him near me for those ten days! It was quite a precedent!

Mom remained with us for over a year. Brian may not have had a good memory of her, but he had no problems adjusting to other sitters after that. He had a sunny disposition and a playful nature about him, no matter who was around. Having a grandmother in your first year is a stroke of luck, and we were all most thankful for that.








2 comments:

  1. This a lovely story of infant, mother and grandmother.

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  2. I loved my grandmother on my maternal side but sadly she died of cancer quite young. My paternal grandmother was a witch, she had a lot to do with us leaving the UK for S.A to get away from her!

    Your mother sounds like she was one of the best ever grandmothers.
    Keep well Diane

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