Proud Grandfather Edition

Greetings to all. This is a Friday morning edition of my blog, because I don’t think I’ll have time this weekend to do it. This has turned into one of the busiest and most gratifying weeks I can remember. Like many of you I have been working hard to prepare for AACR. I have a ton of meetings scheduled, and will be giving a talk on Saturday morning and then speaking at a press conference. Continuing finalization of the CCSG has been interspersed with all of this too.

Then we got “the call” on Wednesday night. Our daughter-in-law Sarah was in labor. It was midnight. We decided to put Harriet on a train in the morning. Then, we went back to bed, and after about five minutes, I asked Harriet if she thought she would be able to get to sleep. I knew I would not!  She said no; I was already packing for the trip. We made a cup of coffee, got in the car and drove up to Philly, getting to the hospital at about 4 am. Naturally, our kids were not in entertainment mode, so we went to a nearby hotel to catch a few hours of sleep. Then we went to the hospital to await our granddaughter’s birth; Harriet stayed, but I had to catch a train back to DC for my Thursday afternoon clinic. My cell phone’s power rapidly drained under the force of innumerable text messages, emails, etc. And then, at 2:45 pm I got the call – Ella Flora Weiner, a beautiful, healthy little girl, had made a triumphant entrance into the world and into our hearts. Her mom Sarah got through it all beautifully.

Our kids picked her name with enormous sensitivity that reminds me of just how special they are. In the Jewish tradition, children are frequently named for deceased loved ones, using at least the first letter of the honoree’s name to start the baby’s name. Sarah’s grandmother Evelyn passed away fairly recently; as luck would have it, she was one of my brother’s professors when he was studying for his doctorate in psychology in Denver, so there was a connection to both families. And my mother, Bella Flora died in 1992; I have written previously about her remarkable life journey as a Holocaust survivor. She was far too young and left much unfinished business at the time of her death; she never got to see how it all turned out. Well, with Ella Flora’s birth, Bella’s story is now complete (and it turned out pretty well!); now it is Ella’s turn to write her own unique, incomparable book of life and dream of, see and do things that could not have been imaginable to a little girl hiding in a belfry to avoid capture only a lifetime ago. Go get ’em, Ella!

After my clinic ended on Thursday I took the train back to Philly to meet my new granddaughter. When I swung by the hospital on Friday morning on my way back to the train station, I found Ken and Sarah fairly tired but exhilarated. In a telling comment, Ken said, “I’ve now been an adult for about 18 hours.” Now, this is a 32-year-old veterinarian who has met the criteria of adulthood for many years. But, anybody who has held their child for the first time knows exactly what he means.

Have a great weekend. And get some sleep for me!