Southwest Sierra #87 – Sierra Snow

When I saw the December 19th issue of the “Mess” with the image of my 2016 “Special Delivery” solstice card in print, I realized that the item that the bird was delivering is hard to see. This provides the perfect excuse to print it again this week with a close-up of the item in the bird’s claws. Even though we are two-weeks past the shortest day of the year, we are still in the season of longer nights, and I have another related story to tell.

In 2018 our son and (ex) daughter-in-law were expecting a baby girl. The due date was mid-December and in alignment with their naming scheme, they decided to name her “Sierra Snow”. Her older brother is named Truckee and their dad (our son) is named Tahoe. A few days past the due date I realized that we hadn’t heard from them and decided to call. When Tahoe answered, they were on their way to the hospital. Her water had broken, and the funniest thing (to me) was that he said: “They probably won’t keep her, she’s not really in labor”. I asked when the water had broken, and his response was: “Yesterday”. I was a little bit alarmed about the risk of infection and assured him that the hospital would keep her. I asked him to keep us posted no matter the hour.

The next morning, we hadn’t heard anything and went to work (at the 16 to 1 Mine Office) per our normal routine. I had a few things that needed to be finished before we could drive to the hospital in Sacramento. I kept expecting a phone call (before I used texting) and plugged away at my work. Finally, around 9 am I couldn’t stand it any longer and called our son. He reported that they’d been inducing labor, very slowly since the night before. I finished my work, and we left Alleghany around 11 am. Our assumption was that the new baby would be born by the time we arrived. We checked in at the hospital around 1 pm and were able to walk right into the labor/delivery room. This surprised us.

Tahoe and Mel (mom) were the only people in the room. I asked if it was ok for us to come in and they both nodded “yes”. The darkened room had soothing new-age type music playing and there was a couch off to the side with plenty of room for us to be out of the way. About an hour after we arrived, on the nurse’s 2nd or 3rd check, she called in the doctor who said: “She’s ready to push”. We asked Mel if we should leave the room and she responded: “It’s ok if you want to stay”. Once she started pushing the delivery came pretty fast.

The moment that the baby popped-out, Mel’s elbow hit the channel changer on the arm of the hospital bed. Suddenly there was the Muppet Elmo, larger than life on the TV screen loudly singing “La la la la la la” in his scratchy Elmo voice. I thought it was great, but the nurses’ face blanched and she quickly changed the channel back to the soothing music. We felt fortunate beyond belief, to unexpectedly get to witness the birth of our granddaughter. The date? You guessed it. December 21, 2018, the Winter Solstice. Another Special Delivery.

I found it auspicious that they chose the name Sierra Snow, before she was born on the Winter Solstice. Mel didn’t know what the Winter Solstice is, so I explained the cycle of the two annual solstices with the equinoxes in between. A little later, I gave her a small stack of my “Special Delivery” Solstice cards to use as birth announcements. When I handed them to her, she got a sour look on her face and said: “You and your solstice thingy.” Needless to say, I was a little taken aback and she didn’t use the cards. I felt a little sad as I realized that some people don’t WANT to know about the cycles of nature. As is often the case with experiences that make us sad, or mad or afraid, later, we can laugh about it. Perspective is everything. Me and my “solstice thingy.”