The five mile drive home from the hospital was very quiet, the early morning traffic on the ring road almost non-existent.
I glanced across at my daughter who was dozing in the passenger seat, she was totally wiped out.
For the last forty two hours she had sat at the side of her daughter's hospital bed, held her hand through the pain, through the tears. Felt her own pain, her own tears, no-one likes to watch their children suffer.
Louise stirred and opened her eyes just as we turned off the main road onto the street where she lived. I pulled to a stop outside her house and cut the engine.
“Well darling, her pain is finally over, she's sleeping peacefully now, they both are. And that's what you need too now, sleep. I'll pick you up in the morning and we'll go back up to the hospital and argue over who gets to hold her the longest.”
The smile on my face was so wide I was in danger of splitting my head in two.
In my mind's eye I could see the photograph...
My mother Lucy on my right, to my left my eldest daughter Louise, to her left her eldest daughter Allana, and cradled in Allana's left arm, Freya Louise, the beautiful new addition to our lives. Five generations of the same family.
©2012 Stephen. J. Green.
Authors note:
I know #fridayflash is a fiction site, and some of the details in the story are fictional, but my eldest grandchild Allana, after a very long and difficult labour, gave birth to beautiful Freya Louise just one hour ago, and I am so proud, happy, and bursting to tell the world that we have just become Great-Grandparents that I penned this instead of posting the story I had earmarked for this week.
Baby, mum, grandmother, great grandparents, and great great grandmother all doing well.
Thank you all for reading.
Steve Green. (A very proud and very happy Great Grandfather)
* * * * * * * * *
Fact from fiction.
(This section of the post was added 14 hours after the original story.)
Hi everyone, and thank you all for your wonderful comments and support.
In the story, the car journey and the dialogue are fiction, we are hoping to get everyone together next weekend to make the photograph come true.
Allana was in the labour ward for over forty hours, her partner Joe (that man is an absolute star), and Louise (An absolute heroine) were with her every step of the way. The last nineteen hours were mostly active labour, with the last eight being the most intense. Due to the incorrect positioning of Freya, coupled with other complications, the labour was much longer than it would normally have been.
Allana was admitted at 11:00am on Wednesday morning, and the beautiful Freya was born at 03:20am on Friday morning, weighing in at a healthy 6lb 7oz.
And she is a beauty, we have just returned from the hospital where I had my first hold of her at 11 hours old. A very emotional moment.
The picture at the top of the post is Freya Louise in my arms at 11 hours old.
Thank you all for reading.
Steve Green.
We always knew you were pretty great anyway. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteThank you Tim, I'm feeling pretty great right now too. :)
DeleteCongratulations, Steve. That's pretty awesome. =)
ReplyDeleteThank you John, it certainly is awesome. There is five generations from my mum down to Freya, and on Joe's side there is five generations from his own great grandma down to Freya.
DeleteWell congatulations! •*¨*•.¸¸❤¸¸.•*¨*• and welcome little Freya. Lovely news, and a lovely story as well! ^__^
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Helen, for the lovely comment, and for the tinsel heart too. :-)
DeleteCongratulations, Great Grandpa!
ReplyDeleteThanks John, the title is going to take a bit of getting used to, I'm only fifty eight years old. Who knows, with luck I may live to see five generations of my own. :-)
DeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, your comment is very much appreciated. :-)
DeleteThat's amazing. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI'm blown away to realise you're 58 too. Funny the mental images we construct.
(I'm 208 btw.)
Thanks Peter.
DeleteYeah, only 58, and I love XBox shooters and such too. I don't believe for one minute that you are 208, my mental image from your posts and comments is of someone in the early 20's ... ( 1920's that is.) (Chuckle... only joking.)
WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats! I know how you feel, I can remember holding Mason for the first time. We tend to not reproduce so quickly; I'm 53 and my only grandkid is 2. But we did have five generations for a few months (there's a pic in this old post. Definitely get the pictures while you can!
Hiya Larry, thanks for the whoooop, much appreciated, I've popped over to see the pics, you look a very proud grandad holding the stroller, and the pic of your family is lovely. I hope you enjoy many happy times watching Mason growing up.
DeleteCongratulations! I am too used to the twists of your stories and I was expecting the baby would have three arms, but knowing that this is partially true, I'm glad the twist never took place and you've got a darling granddaughter, with a great Norse name.
ReplyDeleteThanks Aidan, I know what you mean about my stories, they very rarely end up in the same direction as people expect them to, do they?
DeleteAt the end of the story I have just added a "Fact from fiction" post, which explains about the story, and also about Freya's birth, her full name is Freya Louise, and I absolutely love the name.
I think maybe you misread a little, I am actually blessed with 8 grandchildren, Freya is our first Great-grandchild, and we are hoping for one or two more in the future too.
Thanks for stopping by.
Best wishes mate. :-)
She's gorgeous! And despite dad calling me a heroine, I only did what any mum would do for her baby. It was worth it, the whole experience was exhilarating and wonderful. Allana and Joe did so well, I'm hoping Freya will be the first of several grandchildren :-D
ReplyDeleteLouise.
She is indeed gorgeous.
DeleteLouise darling, you are a heroine, the sheer amount of stamina it must have taken to see through those hours is staggering, and Joe showed strength and maturity far beyond his years.
Poor Allana had such an unbelievably bad time of it, and came through shining.
I too am hoping Freya is the first of many, already she has brought so much happiness to so many people.
She's beautiful, Steve. Congratulations to you all! I'm lucky enough to have a 5-generation photo myself--my great-grandmother down to my daughter--a very rare and precious thing indeed.
ReplyDeleteThank you Danielle, I have had a cuddle of Freya again today, I really can't express just how overjoyed I am.
DeleteIt is indeed a precious thing to be part of five living generations, and it gladdens me to hear you say that you have had that happiness.
We have arranged to have a get-together next Saturday for my mum to meet her great great granddaughter, and to take some pictures, and just celebrate the event.
My own grandma, a truly lovely woman, sadly missed meeting her own great great granddaughter Allana by just a few short months.
Oh wow congratulations! I like babies. I know how I felt the first time I held my niece - it was amazing. Just amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you Sonia, holding a baby, especially a newborn tends to bring out the positive and protective emotions in people, and this is the way it should be too, this is the way nature intended things to be.
DeleteAw, what a lovely story! Hope everyone is still doing well, and congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThank you Icy, everyone is doing fine, Freya is just about as peachy as is possible, they are having to stay in the hospital for a few extra days though because Allana hasn't quite recovered yet.
DeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteFriday Flash is what you make of it, fiction or not. Some post poetry, which is hard to tell whether it's fiction; others, like you, post stories based on personal events. You did a fine job here. I was right there in the car with both you and your daughter. Congratulations to both of you and to your grand-daughter. You are truly blessed.
Stephen thank you so much, I am indeed truly blessed and I do appreciate that, I have a wife, children, grandchildren, and now a great-grandchild, all of them healthy, and a man can't wish for more than that.
DeleteThat is an incredibly moving story.. I'm blubbering now just thinking about it. My daughter was 5 weeks premature and spent two weeks in intensive care. When we finally got her home, we propped her up on the sofa and just stared at her.. we couldn't believe that we were now three.. It was an amazing feeling..Thank you Steve for reminding me. We need to be reminded every day just how precious we all are... oh no.. there I go again.. This office is very dusty today!!
ReplyDeleteOh Tom, your comment is very moving too, I think sometimes we tend to forget what the really important things if life are, we take our health, and the family around us for granted, and it does us good to occasionally stand back and take stock of what we have.
DeletePossessions become totally unimportant to us when one of our loved ones is ill or suffering and it must have been an extremely emotional and worrying time when your baby was in the ICU, happily things came out okay.
The fact that this post has caused you to feel that way is a measure of your love for your daughter, a strength and a virtue.
Congratulations, Steve.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Joan, Freya is one week old today, and the title "Great Grandad" is one I am wearing proudly.
DeleteA bit late, but big congrats to all involved! I thought you were in your 30s. I have some catching up to do.
ReplyDeleteHiya Craig, and thanks ever so much.
DeleteA few people lately have said the same thing about their perspective of my age, so I've decided to post a picture of myself at the top of my blog. Some people use a picture of themselves on their comments icon, I like to use the inkpot+quill icon for my comments as it seems to fit so well with the blog's name, and people are used to seeing it now too.
Absolutely wonderful! I've enjoyed your fiction, but this was fantastic. And I bet that beautiful face has some spectacular smiles!
ReplyDeleterobyn, Colin's wife
Hiya Robyn, and welcome, thanks so much for your wonderful comment. I hope some of the fiction on here isn't too grisly for you, although it is pretty much a mixed bag genre-wise, and not all of it is nasty stuff.
DeleteFreya is almost three months old now, we went to see Allana and Freya yesterday, and she has started to grin at people now, and yes, she is beautiful.. and cheeky-looking. It is going to be an absolute joy watching her grow.
I have missed this post at the appropriate time, but that doesn't stop me from congratulating you on becoming a great grandpa to this beautiful little girl! I love big families!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Cindy, Freya is almost a year old now, and a beautiful bouncing chuckly baby, she is on the verge of walking, we'll certainly have our work cut out for us when she comes to visit us then, I just hope we are quick enough to keep up with her. :-)
Delete