Remembering the new arrivals

The picture of the first baby of the New Year reminded me of Mum’s stories of when Gail and I were born in Kincardine hospital. There was no need for a trip to Walkerton in stormy weather.

From her book, I quote:

Dec. 14 – the day Ruth Anne was born

When we went to the hospital, Miss Knechtel, the Superintendent, tried to persuade us to go home. She said we had come too soon, but it was Keith’s birthday and we were staying! (*Keith was Daddy’s sister’s year-old son.) Soon it was all over.

Cecil’s first reaction, after an intense scrutiny of the baby, was a relieved sigh and the comment, “Her ears don’t stick out!”
Nurse Beth Macdonald, who had nursed Cecil with pneumonia, carried Ruth Anne around showing her to all visitors. She used to say that she had a big mouth like her Aunt Sylvia.

I was in the hospital for a week. I shared a room with Jean MacDonald-Brandt who gave birth to a premature two-pound baby. Without an incubator, the infant only survived several days. Jean’s husband, Rudy, worked at Malcolm’s Furniture Factory and he made a tiny white casket in which they put the baby, surrounded by the beautifully knitted sweater, bonnet, booties and shawl that her mother had made. The minister stood between our beds and conducted the funeral service. What an ordeal that was!

I was allowed to go home with the provision that I stay in bed for another week. Rev. Stanley Johnson helped Dad carry me into the house to a bed he had set up in the dining room. Cuddling Ruth Anne that evening, Dad announced, “This baby has teeth!”
When everyone laughed, he said, as was his habit, “If I never breathe again, that’s the truth!” I soon found out he was right when I tried to nurse her and had to quit.

July 19 – the day Gail was born

That morning, I intended to go up the road to Billy Thompson’s to pick raspberries.

Wanita had given me a perm the day before and she was combing it out. We had milked the cows by hand and Cecil took the milk to Huron Cheese Factory on the 12th. By the time he returned, I had decided that this was THE DAY and plans changed.

Cecil unloaded a load of hay in case he didn’t have time later, and we went to the hospital, stopping at Sylvia’s to tell her where we were going. The nurses had a great rush to get Dr. Couch there in time. Later, he asked Cecil what we would have done if we had had a flat tire. Cecil, unconcerned, replied, “Oh, we would have just run on the rim.”

The nurses would put a sprig of flowers in Gail’s long dark hair. It thrilled me to hear that she was the pet of the nursery. Myrtle McLean had a lovely blond baby boy but she cried all week because she had 13 little dresses ready for a girl.

The hospital bill for seven days was $29.45 including 15 cents for drugs. The hospital bill for six days when Ruth Anne was born had been $23.35 including 60 cents for drugs. The Superintendents who received these payments were Miss Knechtel and Miss Tanner.

Ruth Anne Hollands Robinson
February, 2022