Twenty eight years ago today Cherry and I drove early in the morning to Janey and H’s home and dropped off two year old Kelly, wearing her pink “Big Sister” shirt with her grandparents. We were prepared for this Valentine’s Day as we had taken the refresher Lamaze course and we had an uneventful trip to Park Plaza Hospital where Kacie was born at 11:01 AM. She was a 7-11 baby – not born at a convenience store – but weighed in at seven pounds and eleven ounces.
In the good old days we did not know if we were going to have a boy or a girl ahead of time so we were prepared with a name for each. We liked the initials TRW and a boy would have been Travis Ryan Windlinger. Subliminally influenced by the commercial for TRW, “a company today for the world tomorrow” I suppose.
Instead we got the best Valentine’s Day gift ever. Kacie Colleen was a beautiful baby girl with bright blue eyes. We liked the fact that her initials and first name were the same, but Cherry remembers that we thought it might be a little too cute so we did not name her for three days. Her grandfather, H aka HB, nicknamed her Albuquerque after those wide open eyes that reminded him of an owl. My nickname came for her later as she was a little shy and needed a little extra encouragement when she was young.
I liked to give Cherry roses back then for a job well done. At that time I remarked that I should give Kacie roses every year on her birthday equal in number to her age. This some how became a contract which causes questions like “Where are my roses?” when I miss a year. Thank goodness for Costco and their reasonable prices. Kacie, you have 28 roses waiting for you at my house.
And on order is the children's book pictured above. It was published in your birth year -1983.
Kacie, thanks for being such a great daughter who looks after her parents when needed. We love watching you grow as a person and seeing what you do with your talent and hard work. Happy Birthday and Valentine's Day!
Love, Dad.
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