mrshojo: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREL!

Laurel Sandra Johnson
10 months old

Forty-five years ago was a day that I remember well. I was a week overdue with our first baby. I had been to see Dr. Inglis the week before and was told that if I hadn't had the baby I was to take a "big dose" of castor oil on Monday morning. I had no idea how much a "big dose" was but I guess I took enough as it did the trick. I was running to the bathroom most of the day! Howard and his dad were hauling grain that day and I made chili and johnny cake for their lunch but I wasn't up to eating anything. I was a member of Salem Circle but I wasn't going to make it to that Monday evening meeting either.

I don't remember what time we headed for Estevan but Howard went to the hospital cafeteria for some supper. There were no other patients in the maternity ward so I had it all to myself that night. Our precious little girl, Laurel Sandra Johnson, arrived shortly before midnight. It was cool on the ward so she was put in an incubator for the night. Howard left to make some important phone calls and to bring the news to the new "Grandpa Johnson". She was to be his only granddaughter followed by four grandsons. She was also the first granddaughter for my parents. Alan and Judy's son Tommy was the first grandchild and first grandson.

A stay of five days in the hospital was standard in those days. The only visitors allowed were the father and the grandparents. (Dr. Inglis wanted no expectant fathers in the delivery room either!) I think two of Howard's aunts did manage to sneak in a visit as my parents were 300 miles away so it was just Howard and Horace who could visit.

Laurel may have been a week overdue but she arrived on a very special day - the anniversary of the day three years before when Howard and I became engaged at the Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon. I was attending the U of S and had an English exam scheduled for the next day. Would you believe that when the class started the professor told us that we weren't ready for the exam so he had rescheduled it for a later date!! So I am thinking back to that special event 48 years ago as well.

We came home from the hospital on Saturday, December 21, when astronauts were circling the moon for the first time. The first moon landing took place the following July, the day that my parents came back from their one and only trip to Norway.

It was an exciting first Christmas with Mom, Dad, Sandra, Horace, Ardis and her two special friends from Guyana and Taiwan here to share the day with us. Laurel still has one of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that were a first present.

Laurel was baptized by Pastor Leon Gilbertson on December 29th. The service was planned for Trinity but very COLD weather changed those plans. The Gilbertsons and godparents, Dave and Bea Bergum, came to the farm instead. Dave is Howard's cousin and they were the "matchmakers" who introduced me to Howard. They lived just a couple doors down from where I stayed when I was teaching a grade one and two class at Elmwood School in Swift Current. I babysat their daughter Kathy and rode along to church services at St. Olaf's Lutheran Church with them.

Laurel's baptism
Dec. 29, 1968

My mother made Laurel's baptismal gown. The two friends who came home with Ardis, all students at UND Grand Forks, did most of the embroidery work on the front of it. The gown was later worn by our three sons and several of our nieces, nephews and grandchildren.

Laurel with Aunties - Ardis and Sandra

There was no baptismal font but the water was poured into a beautiful lead crystal bowl that my Erickson grandparents received for a wedding gift on September 21, 1904 in Glenwood, Minnesota. That bowl was placed into the font at Trinity, Torquay for Laurel and Greg's daughter, Ashley Laura Diekrager's baptism in May, 2008.

So on this Monday I have been a mother for 45 years. They say time flies when you are having fun so I must have been having fun as it seems impossible how quickly those years have flown by. I am so blessed to have this wonderful daughter who keeps in close touch with me and lives less than two hours away. And what a bonus to also have three caring sons to carry on the Johnson family name and to help with things that this Mom doesn't get done around here.

The night that Laurel was born I was too excited to sleep and remember the hymn "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow" played over and over in my mind. Those words come to mind today too. Happy 45th Birthday, Laurel! I am still praising God for the precious gift of you. Here are a few picture highlights: