March 23, 2004

From 2010 ~
I find it serendipitous that this post should have been put up last Tuesday, and now today, it will be put up...the day Marisa and Zeke come home from the hospital....

March 23, 2004
Wonderful yet bittersweet news.
After ten years together, Nick and Marisa are expecting a baby!!! I am so happy for them, for us all. Yet it is bittersweet because this will be the first of our new babies never to know Uncle Steve, never to hear his laughter. This will be the first of our babies never to hear his crooning comfort into its tiny ear.
Next to Nicholas and Christopher, Kirstie and Kyle were his favorite kids in the world. He doted on them. Sometimes only Uncle Steve would do when one was crying or had a problem. One day while amy was at work I had to get an ear ring out of four-year-old Kirstie’s infected ear lobe. The skin was swollen up around the tiny gem stone. I tried laying her on my bed and gently easing my fingernail under the ear ring but it was too painful for her and she couldn’t take it without squirming, which, of course, pulled my fingernail away from its target. Uncle Steve heard the crying and came to help. He gently held Kirstie’s head, stroking her forehead with his other hand, telling her “It’ll be over soon if you can be still for just a little longer and let Granma get it out of there. If we leave it in it’s just going to get much worse and hurt more. Can you be still while Granma takes care of you?” “OK. I’ll try” she sniffled. And she was still and the ear ring came out on the next try.
I told my mom about the news and she took in a big breath and exhaled slowly. “You know, that’s the best thing you could have told me today. We surely need some good news like that to get us back on track!”

I look forward to saying “Hello” after such a difficult “Good-bye”.