May Day
Well it is officially May Day. A day recognized by many people for many different reasons.
May Day has special meaning for me.
23 years ago today my wife walked up to me and announced that she was pregnant with our first child. I will never forget the look in her eyes. I will never forget the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach.
It is not as if it was unexpected. We had been trying for 4 to 6 months and my wife had become convinced that there had to be something wrong with me. I could not convince her that these things took time. She thought I purposely was not trying hard enough in order to keep the good times rolling. Believe me if I could have I would have but the fact of the matter is that I was doing the best I could.
She took me to a Korean doctor. He specialized in this kind of thing. I went through the humiliating process of supplying a sperm sample to a total stranger. Urine samples and stool samples are one thing. Sperm samples are something altogether different. I came out of that room (no pun intended) thinking that there has to be a better way.
The doctor gave us the news in his best attempt at English.
“You a perfect man!” he said. And I believe that is the first and the last time I have ever heard those words.
It was just a matter of weeks later when my wife confirmed that my boys could swim. I had slipped one past the goalie.
Now here we are 23 years later. My daughter will graduate from the University of Georgia in a couple of weeks. She gets married on the 26th of this month. It has all been a blur.
But I will always remember May 1st. I very well may forget birthdays and anniversaries and national holidays but May 1st is forever burned in my mind. I was going to be a father. And there is no greater honor that can be bestowed upon a man.
verr nicely writ, sir. tiz these memries that we git to keep. all else jes drifts away (so it seems). ifn ye blank hard twice, ye kin miss yer own kids life.