Good News of Great Joy

Very few people remember where they were on this day in 1989, but I’ve got a pretty good recollection. I was in Tacoma, in the big family house on 42nd Street. I woke up along with my younger brother Andrew. Our parents were not there.

Instead, a friend of my mother’s had come. She told us Mum had gone into labor in the middle of the night. Dad had rushed her to the hospital. Everything was OK, she assured us, seeing the nervous looks on our faces. We had a new baby brother and, as soon as we’d had breakfast, she’d drive us there to see him.

I insisted on stopping on the way to the hospital at my school, Sherman Elementary, in the old L-shaped building. Rather than go in through the hall like a normal person, I made a beeline for Mrs. Bellmer’s 4th grade classroom and banged on the outside window. “Mom went into labor last night!” I yelled: “I have a new little brother! We’re going to the hospital to see him!”

His name is Christopher Bailey Lott, and he was just about the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on.

Mum’s friend sensed worry on our faces because we’d seen this go sideways before. When I was 5 or 6, Mum had a tubal pregnancy. It almost killed her and it drastically cut down on the chances that there would be a third brother or sister Lott. But 23 years ago today, a full 10 years younger than his oldest brother, there he was.

I mention this for three reasons: 1) to wish my kid brother a happy 23rd birthday; 2) for you to see how pregnancies always make me nervous; and 3) to announce the latest addition to the the Lott lineage. Andrew’s wife, my sister-in-law Laura, gave birth this morning to a baby girl, Laney Grace Lott. June 5 is an astoundingly good day on the Lotts’ calendar.

It happened this morning in Dallas, around 7:30. I held off announcing it because there were some minor complications and so it took a while to name the kid. But she’s here, child and mother are now in good shape, and our familial cup runneth over.