Everybody Holds Denise
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
Well, after Denise was born on April 8, 1976, it was pretty much downhill from there. No, just kidding…but it is true that she had her share of problems. She had a problem with keeping her milk down while still in the nursery, and by the time she had reached the age of six weeks, she had another severe problem: an infection known as thrush. This horrendous illness covered the insides of her mouth with sores so it caused trememdous pain whenever she ate. She had been on solid foods already when she was stricken with this, but had to return to milk. Everytime she was fed, it would induce howls of pain…from all of us, I’m sure. Read the rest of this entry »
I can’t tell you the exact day, month, or even year I realized this – but pretty much from the beginning, I realized that my Dad liked cars. The origins of his fascination with classic automobiles can certainly be traced back to his childhood. But my childhood knowledge of his vehicular obsession can only be traced back to about 1975 – when he made his first classic car purchase during my lifetime: the blue 1949 Super-Six Hudson. 
My memories of Denise’s birth are confined to just a few seconds of standing in Grandma and Grandpa Murphy’s family room, looking through the sliding glass patio doors at my parents pulling up in the driveway in our ’72 AMC Hornet, exiting the car, and carrying my new sister into their house. Obviously, this is where I was dropped off as my parents headed to the hospital. In addition, although I can’t remember it specifically, there is a great Super 8 film that my Dad took of my Mom and me getting out of the car and bringing Denise Anne into our Echo Hill front doors for the first time. This was taken on Tuesday, April 13. 
Mom thought that she was coming down with the flu during the late Summer of 1975 but considering she was trying to get pregnant at the time, she bagan to suspect otherwise. I cannot specifically remember much about finding out the good news…or seeing Mom with a big belly, but I’m now told that this little chap who had turned four in October was happy that he would be getting a new sibling. Soon enough Mom became sick for real and remained ill in various ways throughout the duration of carrying the baby. In fact, just weeks before the delivery, our whole family was deathly sick from the flu, a virus that began with me, and there was even a petrified fear of losing the baby.