Family Expansion

It was an exciting time.  The whole family was talking about it and I was about to become an uncle.  That status hadn’t sunk in yet, so I wasn’t sure how to react to this new role.  Mary and John were going to have a baby!

That meant that Mom would become a grandma and our Grandma would become a great grandma.  The addition of a baby can affect the whole family.  Then I started to wonder what it would be like to be a grandpa or even a great grandpa.  There’s plenty of time to think about that later.  I did want to get married and have kids.

I hoped Mary’s baby would arrive before I had to leave for college.  I hadn’t been around little babies, so I looked forward to this big occasion.  Mark Pfaff obliged me and was born August 6, 1954 in the Miles City hospital.  I don’t imagine my wishes had anything to do with the timing of his arrival, but I thanked him anyway.  When we visited Mary and Mark in the hospital I was surprised at how small he looked.  John advised me he was going to grow to be a tall man that could help around the ranch.  You could tell John was proud of his new Son.  He was right too, as Mark grew to be a tall fellow and is running the ranch now.

I haven’t been comfortable in hospitals so didn’t stay too long.  At this point my time in hospital stay’s had been limited to when I had the mumps and that was the college infirmary, but I still wasn’t comfortable with nurses flitting about and people in bed.  I always wondered how sick they were.  Mary looked great despite the trauma of child birth.  We joked a bit about my role as an uncle and then I was out. 

*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 1, Growing up in the country", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill.