Chapter 15

Then, on July 27, the world turned halfway upside down. Kat went into labor that morning. Only thirty minutes after we had arrived at the hospital, her water broke. Just after lunch time, the nurse handed me a swaddled, screaming, perfectly healthy baby boy. He was twenty-one inches and seven-and-a-half pounds of blissful life. As soon as we had found out Kat was having a boy, the girls were in insistent agreement that we name him John Junior. I had demurred, but none of them would have it, so I acquiesced. It was humbling to be holding my namesake. A little life entirely dependent upon us.

Kat and John Junior had only been home for four days when Rita went into labor and finished our world’s full turn upside down. It was August 3, but the labor was grueling. In the wee hours of August 4, the doctor decided to perform a C-section. And shortly before 4 a.m., I held a perfect little girl named Katherine Jessica. She was a tiny bundle at eighteen inches and six pounds, but I swor