[00:06.47]I can honestly say it was the best of times and the worst of times.
[00:12.06]I was joyfully expecting my first child at the same time
[00:16.71]that my once energetic mother was losing her battle with a brain tumor.
[00:22.01]As Mother grew closer and closer to death,
[00:25.76]my baby grew closer and closer to life inside me.
[00:30.11]My biggest fear was that their lives would never connect.
[00:34.15]I grieved not only for the upcoming loss of my mother,
[00:38.43]but also that she and my baby would never know each other.
[00:42.79]A few weeks before my due date, Mother lapsed into a deep coma.
[00:48.60]Her doctors told us she would never awaken.
[00:53.19]We brought mother home.
[00:55.51]As often as I could,
[00:57.51]I sat beside her and talked to her about the baby inside me.
[01:01.75]I hoped that somehow deep inside, she knew.
[01:05.14]On February 3, 1989, at about the same time my labor started,
[01:11.78]mother opened her eyes.
[01:13.34]When they told me this at the hospital,
[01:15.95]I called home and asked for the phone to be put to mom’s ear.
[01:21.66]“Mom—Mom—listen. The baby is coming!
[01:26.67]You’re going to have a new grandchild. Do you understand?”
[01:31.40]“Yes!”
[01:33.03]What a wonderful word! The first clear word she’d spoken in months!
[01:39.27]When I called again an hour later, they told me the impossible:
[01:44.31]mom was sitting up, her oxygen tubes removed. She was smiling.
[01:49.77]“Mom, it’s a boy! You have a new grandson!”
[01:54.37]“Yes! Yes! I know!”
[01:57.33]By the time I brought Jacob home,
[02:00.12]Mom was sitting in her chair, dressed and ready to welcome him.
[02:04.22]Tears of joy blocked my vision
[02:07.22]as I laid my son in her arms and she clucked at him.
[02:11.09]They stared at each other. They knew.
[02:14.37]For two more weeks, Mother clucked and held Jacob.
[02:18.86]For two weeks she spoke to my father,
[02:21.85]her children and grandchildren in complete sentences.
[02:25.53]For two miracle weeks, she gave us joy.
[02:29.36]Then she quietly slipped back into a coma and,
[02:33.89]after visits from all her children,
[02:35.93]was finally free of the pain and confines of a body.
[02:40.43]Memories of my son’s birth will always be bittersweet for me,
[02:45.12]but it was at this time that I learned an important truth about living.
[02:49.72]For while both joy and sorrow are fleeting,
[02:53.48]and often intertwined, love has the power to overcome both.
[02:58.25]And love can last forever.
