The Turnaround

After nine months of waiting, three weeks of hospitalization, and eleven hours of labour, a young couple in a northern Canadian mining town welcomed their firstborn son with joy and wonder. That baby was mine and I still vividly recall the amazement I felt at having accomplished such an incredible feat. I held him close as I breathed in the sweet baby scent of his soft skin and marvelled at his exquisite perfection.

I turned around and he was zipping across the floor in mad-baby fashion, laughing with wild abandon to be free of the confines of crib and playpen. What a cute, contented, pleasant baby he was. Big brown eyes and sandy hair, he made us deliriously happy when he mimicked the words “Mama” and “Dada.” A genius in the making!

I turned around and he was a curious toddler, eagerly exploring the world around him and astounding his parents with his intellectual skill in learning the alphabet at such a tender age. His expressive face took on a studious look whenever he encountered something new and intriguing. How proud I felt when someone commented, “Isn't he a smart little fellow?”

I turned around and he was heading off to Kindergarten with a little blue school bag slung over his shoulder. I remember trying to hold back tears as I saw the tell-tale signs of uncertainty in his eyes and the slight tremble of his lower lip. Off he went into the big unknown, leaving the security of home to follow his teacher and classmates while a tiny break opened up in his mother's heart.

I turned around and he was an active young boy playing street hockey with his friends and younger brother. Keenly interested in dinosaurs and the intricacies of the galaxy, my growing genius was a straight A student (for a while at least). He revelled in video games, Japanese comics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Calvin and Hobbes, and big hardcover books about scientific discoveries. Oh, yes, he also found time to team up with his middle brother to make their baby brother's life a living hell at times. Toughening him up, they called it.

I turned around and he was a tall, lanky, wise-cracking teenager. Sometimes distant, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes looking at me with an air of superiority – occasionally condescending to smile at me, revealing brief glimpses of the little boy who used to be. A typical know-it-all teen; I, of course, as the mother, knew nothing. How could I? I was an ancient old hag in the latter stages of my thirties!

I turned around and he was stepping on a plane to fly off to college. Oh, how my head and heart ached for days. How would he ever get by without me? Was he hungry? Or lonely? Would those far away profs know that my boy was so smart and so special? Was he making new friends? Good friends? Was he safe? Oh, the torture of those early days of separation!

I turned around and he was wearing a grad gown, striding across a stage to receive his diploma. The future lay ahead of him, bright and shining with dreams of success. When the reality of the job market dashed those hopes for a while, I commiserated with his frustration until, once again, a plane ride bore him off to an unknown future.

I turned around and he was an ecstatic young man calling to inform his parents that he had secured a lucrative position after passing through an intensive screening process of application.

I turned around and listened carefully as he spoke so glowingly of a lovely young nurse he had met. I turned around and heard the love in his voice as he assured us that she was definitely “the one.” I turned around and he was again on the phone with a nervous tremor in his voice saying that he was sitting in his car outside a jewellery store and he was going inside to buy an engagement ring. 

I turned around and watched through tear-filled eyes as I witnessed his wedding vows to the woman he loves with all his heart. His tall brothers stood by his side – the three amigos, toughening up days behind them.

I turned around and that magic phone line once again brought incredible news of an impending arrival. Now my firstborn son and his beautiful wife await the birth next month of their firstborn son. In the midst of falling leaves and thoughts of thanksgiving, they will harvest their little pumpkin from life's bountiful garden.

If I were to share one piece of wisdom with the new parents, it would be this: Savor every blessed moment of family life and, oh yes, don't turn around too fast!