Tonight Cora and I ran to the grocery store for a few things. When we got back to the car, Cora turned on the Into the Woods soundtrack. It happened to start at the very beginning. And to get in good listening time, we took the long way home.
After weaving through neighborhoods and going a few miles around, we ended up at Northwest Classen High School. I have done this before with my girls, but as I took Cora around to the east side of the building to show her where my first classroom was, she asked me if she was born before or after I worked there. I told her she was born
while I was working there. And then it occurred to me that I had never shared a very important part of the story with her....
This is actually where I went into labor with you!
(The arrow is pointing to the location of my classroom. NWC is HUGE.)
It's true. So I drove her around so we could look through the doors into the hallway where I realized something wasn't quite right on the morning I went into labor. School started before my doctor's office was open, and I was teaching a first period class, so I taught for 20 minutes, then went to call my doctor at 8. The nurse told me to go to Labor and Delivery to get checked out. I was only 32 weeks along. I went back to class, finished teaching, and then went down to the office. I needed a ride to the hospital, and Jake was in Norman at OU. My car had been hit on MLK Day 2008 while parked in the street in front of our house and was at the repair shop. Jake had dropped me off at work on this day, of all days, that it would have been helpful to have my own transportation.
(The stairway is lit up. My classroom is the two long sets of windows on the second floor just to the right of the stairway in the photo.)
I was quietly explaining what was going on to someone, and before I knew it, a message had been put out on the walkie-talkie that I needed a ride to the hospital. Soon several people were around me, including our principal who walked up asking if we needed to call an ambulance. No amblulance required. :) One of the assistant principals gave me a ride to Saint Anthony, walked me in, and made sure I got settled. Her act of love and concern still means so much to me. When I was hooked up to the monitors and checked by a nurse, I was dilated to a two and having contractions every two minutes. It was an Aha Moment - A contraction! That's what that sensation has been! On the second check, my cervix started gushing blood; I thought
that sensation was my water breaking. I was immediately taken in for an ultrasound to make sure my placenta was attached and where it should be. It was. The rest of my hospital stay and three weeks of labor is a story I will save for another time.
Northwest Classen is where I became a teacher, and it also held many people who I love dearly and who were around me as I stepped into motherhood. I was walking down the hall when Joe Quigley said, "I hear you're in the family way." I didn't know what that meant; I had never heard it before. So, that is also where he explained to me what it meant to be in the family way. And I was glad he
asked because I never quite knew how to break the news to anyone.
(The entry is lit up. Joe Quigley's old classroom is on the first floor just the the left of the entry and is where I did my first round of student teaching before moving to Northeast Academy for student teaching round two.)
It was also where I whispered to Mickey Winn that I had started spotting when I was 10 weeks along with Cora. She grabbed my arm, gave me a hug, and covered my class when I went to the doctor to have my bloodwork done. My first pregnancy had ended in miscarriage at 12 weeks. I was actually miscarrying during my first week of student teaching with Joe Quigley at Northwest during my senior year of college. I was terrified that I was going to lose my pregnancy with Cora as well. After I left my doctor, I sat in my car and wept, pleading with God to let me keep this one. She stayed.
Becky Feldman and Mickey, both English teachers, were the perfect women to have around. They had both experienced such joy in motherhood. They had both been involved with La Leche League and were so wonderfully supportive and helpful with my breastfeeding journey, which had a few hurdles with Cora being born prematurely at 35 weeks. They visited me during the previously mentioned hospital stay. They visited me at home when I had a newborn. They organized a baby shower at work after Cora was born because I had been in the hospital in preterm labor when mine was supposed to be. They were always there when I needed them.
(Our neighborhood is at the very top of this photo, just east of (above) where Shepherd Lake used to be.)
Cora's face lit up when I told her I went into labor with her at Northwest. I
retired from teaching after my first year there. I ended up staying home with my children for 7.5 years before returning to work. We haven't been inside Northwest Classen since Cora was a baby. I would love take my girls in and show them around. In addition to holding a tender place in my heart, Northwest is also a Midcentury dreamboat. So many reasons to schedule a visit. So many reasons I will always be grateful for this place. It's highly unlikely that I'm the only woman who ever went into labor there in its nearly 70 years of existence, but it was fun to tell that little part of our collective story tonight to an almost 12 year old who had quite the fanbase at Northwest ready and waiting to welcome her into the world.
Maria's family moved to Minnesota and would come and visit grandparents every summer - their country grandparents in Norman, and their city grandparents right here. When Maria was 4.5, she fell down the stairs and chipped her front tooth. We have only lived here for three years, but I have thought numerous times about all of the lives that happened here before we arrived. This happens most often when I am helping Magnolia in the bath. I wonder how many children have left rings around the tub in the last 82 years. It was wonderful to put a face with the wondering.
