Happy 48th Birthday, Erin and Elin

48 years ago today June 11th, Poppi was sitting in the waiting room at the Venice, FL hospital. He was waiting for me to deliver our baby. Dad's were not allowed in delivery room way back then. He had picked up a copy of a Readers Digest and was reading an article titled "How much can one man endure". After a while a nurse came out of the delivery room and said, are you Mr Johnston? Poppi said that he was. The nurse said well Mr Johnston you have a darling little baby girl. Poppi was delighted and got on the phone to start calling friends to let them know the news. About 15 minutes later a different nurse came out and asked again if he was Mr. Johnston and Poppi again said yes. The nurse then said, did someone come out and tell you that you had a little girl. Poppi said yes. She said, well Mr Johnston they made a mistake. Poppi said, how can you people make a mistake like that, don't you know the difference between girls and boys? She said, oh no, Mr Johnston, it is not a boy it is two darling little girls. When he got on the phone again to let friends and family know this exciting news all the lines were busy.



Meanwhile I had been in the delivery room doing the really hard work. Little Erin was born and the doctor and nurses were all busy cleaning her up, when I had this huge pain and groaned. The doctor turned around and said well for heavens sakes and I said am I going to have another one and he said you sure are. So 12 minutes after Erin, Elin was born.



What a glorious day! Those two sweet little babes sure did surprise a lot of folks that day. But think mostly their Mom and Dad. Think their little 19 month brother, Eric was quite surprised also to suddenly have two little sisters. Really don't think his life was ever quite the same!



Poppi went on to endure many things in his life, but he was always proud as punch with his "matched pair" as he liked to call Erin and Elin.


All our friends in Englewood had given us a baby shower for the new baby. After the surprise, everyone duplicated their gifts. Ended up with 13 dozen diapers(cloth of course) and I used everyone of them. I also learned very quickly why God had given me two hands!!



So here's to you Erin and Elin. Happy, happy birthday to you both. All seems like only yesterday. Thanks for giving me 48 years of wonderful joy and love. You were one of the best surprises of my life!! All babies are gifts - it was very cool to get two gifts all at once! Love you and so did your Dad.