Memories

My dearest daughter,

Exactly a year ago this evening labor started, the most fruitful labor I had experienced in my life.
Your father and I had gone to my childhood's home to wait for the moment and in the evening of December, 21st I started to feel heavier. Something I couldn't really express felt like you were about to arrive. It was indeed time. You had been expected since Dec., 8th.
My nieces C and A were around and they joined me in my gymnastics and yoga. After dinner I felt like having a cup of hot chocolate and my mother made us one. I remember 'cause never a cup of chocolate has been most enjoyed and regretted afterwards. At midnight I brought up supper, chocolate and tangerines all in a tangle of pain, nerves, expectation. Labor pains got stronger as I went deeper in the night. All by myself I had to focus on hearing the noises of the house to get distracted. However, at dawn the pain grew as a hungry lion and roared and roared. Daylight welcome a pain I had never known before. Painful, yeah but full of different shades. Never a pain has caused such curiosity. I was curious to see the end of it, full of expectations. By the time children were going to school, passing under the window, my husband and I started out to hospital. My sister, a teacher, was also going to school and I recall how pain was pinning me down nearly making me cry when she greeted a pupil's mother with a cheerful "this is my sister, yeah, they are already going to hospital".
It was Dec., 22nd., an ever joyful day, the last day of school before Christmas, a day of Christmas carols concerts, the National lottery draw in Spain. We headed for hospital and the rest is history...
How beautiful were those last days feeling you so near.