Happy birthday, dear Kenny, happy birthday to you

November 7th, 1978. I had not felt well most of the night but didn't think this was the day our baby would come. Dad was so excited, he had been the one to come up with the idea of having another baby "...so we'll have lots of family home at Christmastime." He kept asking if I thought the baby would come that day and all I could say was "I don't know, all I know is I feel awful." He decided he couldn't go to work and leave me alone with the two other little ones (Tracy and Mike) so he called our friend Billie DeMond to come stay with me.

Billie was quite sure I was having the baby and she certainly didn't want me to have it there in our house so she repeatedly said, "I'll just call Bob and have him come back home." Finally I agreed since I wasn't feeling any better. Billie called and, of course, it wasn't a good time. He was right in the middle of something important. I told him not to hurry but he finished up as quickly as he could and got home to take me to the hospital.

Leaving out the part about the nurse checking to see how close to time for the baby to come, I'll just say the doctor had to leave some poor woman on the examining table to come "catch".

Ken, you were such a beautiful new baby, no wrinkles or redness. Much like your beautiful little girl. And Dad, from the first, said you looked like you already knew what was going on. To quote him, "he looks like he's been here before".

Happy birthday, Ken, I'm so glad you've come into our lives. And...I'm so glad that silly little song I sang to you made such an impression you wanted to have a song done for your little girl. The song "One Bright Shining Star" is beautiful.