And Then There Were Three

A little over thirty-two years ago on a warm spring day I had a conversation with the school nurse that went something like this.

Me: What would cause a person to nearly pass out just standing out at recess? I can't believe I feel so light headed.

Nurse: You must be pregnant!

Me: You've got to be kidding -- Carrie is only 4 months old and anyway Garry had that taken care of. We aren't having any more children.

But she was right; I was pregnant. At first I was very upset to be *with child* again so soon, but after some tears and prayers I accepted the fact that my family was going to grow by one and began to prepare for the third daughter. I never thought for a minute that the child I carried this time was a boy.

Garry and discussed names and decided that we wanted to name her after a very good friend that had a name we both liked and his mother --- Amy Marie born December 29, 1975 became our third daughter.

She didn't follow the rules being born. No, she had to do it her way. Dr. Wright came in to examine me and said it would be *a good while* before she came. But Amy didn't seem to think he knew what he was talking about. I had one hard contraction and knew that this baby was ready to be born. I told her dad that he had better get someone because the baby was coming. He just smiled and said, "But Dr. Wright just said it would be a while."

I was not happy about his dismissing me and what I knew was happening. I think I cursed at him and said to get someone now! The nurse came in with the same remark that Garry had made and very reluctantly began to check me --- she got in a hurry as soon as the covers were pulled back. I don't think I have ever seen nurses move quite so quickly as they did then. I do remember them saying over and over, "Don't push! Don't push!" Like I really had much control over anything at this stage of the game. Dr. Wright was still in the hospital and made it back to delivery in time to *catch* the baby and in doing so delivered my third daughter.

Amy -- we called her "Chunky Chicken Soup" a lot when she was a toddler -- she was chunky, the sweetest round cheeks, big blue eyes, dimples and blond hair that stood up like a halo. She also had a very sweet, laid back disposition that made you just want to squeeze her. Grandmother Bowen thought I had finally done something right because I finally had a round baby --- the kind she loved!

There are lots of Amy stories too and many of them include Carrie in some way. Like Carrie giving her a haircut, ending her having baby curls on the back of her head. (Okay, so I wasn't a very good mother to leave scissors where a nearly 3 year old could cut a nearly 2 year old's hair, but no one was hurt.) Another time on a Scouting trip Amy told Carrie to order for her at Taco Villa as she went to the restroom. She wanted a Guadalajara but to have them hold the guacamole. Hard to do since it is just a corn tortilla with guacamole, lettuce and tomato. And then there was the time when they were in Lubbock attending Tech living together in an apartment that I get the phone call that said, "Momma, tell Amy she has to clean the bathroom!"

Of course, there are stories about Amy by herself. When she got an F on a paper in Kindergarten because she wanted to use black and orange (Demon colors) instead of blue and red like the teacher said to use. Or how we could have her all ready for Sunday school sit her on the couch and in the fifteen minutes it would take to get everyone else into the living room and her up she would look like she had been in a wrestling match with a pig and have never left the couch. We could never figure out how it happened.

She has filled us with pride several times also. She went to Washington D.C. for the Hobey Leadership
Conference her senior year and managed to take care of herself (for the most part) during one of the worst blizzards experienced on the east coast at the time. She graduated from Texas Tech in three years with a BS degree. And she has given us two very special grandchildren, Abigail and Benjamin.

She is a Bowen -- stubborn, proud, witty, laid back, and very much her own person. I'm glad the nurse was right that day. What would life have been like without Amy?