Today is my son Ben's 40th birthday and of course my thoughts turn to Peter whose birthday is tomorrow.
When Peter turned 40 we had been back living here for over twelve months, and he was entrenched in his third career change; when I turned 40 I had had three children, was working part time and had just started studying again.Somehow Ben doesn't seem as old or experienced as we were, but I know that he has had many more varied life experiences than either of us at the same age.
When Ben was born I was 24 years old and Peter was one day off 27. We thought we were so worldly wise ready to take on this new phase of our lives. In reality we were dreadfully under-prepared and our lives were never the same again.
The day that Ben was born was a cool November day, very similar to the weather we have been experiencing lately. I now know that we went to the hospital way too early, but I was unsure of what to do and impatient to meet my first born child.
As a result, we spent most of the day walking on the edge of the lake and waiting for labour to set in or risk being sent home. That would have been the ultimate humiliation, to have to go home and come back another time!
Fortunately my friendly GP decided to intervene in the early evening by breaking my waters and Ben was born just before 8 pm that night. Our family began with the birth of my parents' first grandchild, my grandmother's first great-grandchild and the fifth Kendall grandson
Happy Birthday Ben and Uncle Peter. What a lovely memory of so long ago. I don't even feel as old as I thought mum and dad were when they were my age! xox Louise
ReplyDeleteThanks Louise - this is my 2nd ever blog comment! Thank you so much. xxx
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