“This Baby Does Not Have a Head”
My oldest daughter was born in late April. Intentionally, her mother and I chose not to know the sex before she was born. Prior to her birth, we discussed various names that we thought might be used. In all honesty, I did not have any names for a boy picked out. I was confident that the baby would be a girl. Having a boy child was the furthest thing from my mind. Therefore, I was not really surprised when the doctor said, “Well, it looks like you have a beautiful baby girl” in the Labor and Delivery Suite at St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. As soon as we saw her, we knew she was “Rebecca”, a name we had discussed in honor of my paternal grandmother. (We called her “Granny”- Vera Rebecca Adeline Reeves Ferguson). It was, also, obvious to us that she would be the source of great joy; therefore, “Joye” was chosen as her middle name. “Rebecca Joye”, I love the sound of the name.
My Granny was full of spunk, spit, vim, vigor, feistiness, creativity, wit, wisdom, humor, resilience, modesty, cleverness, stubbornness, and deep/abiding love and compassion. Rebecca was like that. She embodied so much of my Granny; of course, she added her own “Rebecca-iness” to being Rebecca. The gifts of Joye she gave were abundant, contagious, wonderful, and are bestowed on all, regardless of anything and everything. As her father, I am honored she is my daughter.
Of course, there are many, many memories I treasure of Rebecca Joye’s life-filled journey. There are times I simply try to turn off the outside world of distractions, turn on the inside world of treasureness, and turn on to the flow of emotions and realness that Rebecca Joye added to the delightfulness. One of the memories that never fails to bring a smile and chuckle is of her the first Christmas season she was in my world. She was about eight months old at the time.
The house we lived in was just northeast of Knoxville, Tennessee. The nursery room was adjacent to the bedroom that I shared with her mother. Well, Rebecca was having a difficult, difficult time sleeping; more difficult than her usual difficult time sleeping. My job was to go to Rebecca’s crib, whenever she was awake during the night and crying, pick her up, and bring her to her mother for nursing and changing as needed. This one night in particular Rebecca seemed to be awake and crying every few minutes. It seems as though I had made a dozen trips or more to retrieve her from her crib and bring her to her mother. Now, I know I am probably over-stating the number of trips I made; however, it is possible I am under-stating the number as well. Anyway, I was up and down all night long. I was exhausted. Rebecca’s mother was exhausted. Rebecca was persistent. After several such trips, I was aroused from my sleep (again) by the sounds of Rebecca’s crying. I stumbled from the bed, made my way to her crib, picked her up, brought her to her mother, returned to my spot in the bed, and immediately fell asleep. I had been asleep for just a few minutes when Rebecca’s mother awaken me by saying (rather excitedly), “Larry! Larry!”. I startled awake, asking why she was calling my name. She replied by saying, “This baby does not have a head!” Well, what had happened was that I in my sleep-deprived state had gone to Rebecca’s crib, gathered her in my arms, carried her and delivered her to her mother for nursing, and then had returned to sleep. Her mother, in her own sleep-deprived state, had spent some time trying to nurse her without success, as Rebecca had continued her sleep-deprived crying seeking some mother’s milk nourishment. It was then that Rebecca’s mother realized that she had spent time trying to nurse Rebecca’s bottom instead of her head. You see, I had carried Rebecca from her bed to ours upside-down. Therefore, her mother discovered that Rebecca’s head was not where it was supposed to be.
Through the years, one of the things that brought lots and lots of Joye to my life, Rebecca’s life, and others is when we retell this story, referring to Rebecca as the “baby that does not have a head”.