My daily routine, since retiring many years ago, is to ask myself immediately upon waking each morning, "what day is this? what do I have planned for today?" Since I have been ailing with a bad cold, I have not had anything planned nor did it really matter what day it was. However, today is different. I opened my eyes at 6:55AM and without even thinking about it I said to Houston "today is Kim's birthday and it is a wonderful day". So with that said, I will tell you a little about Kimberly Dawn Cline Evans Pigue, my 53 (she will kill me for telling her age) year old daughter.
I love to say that Kim was born in the midst of a party and has been having her own party ever since. As a matter of fact, Billy and I were entertaining with a chili supper and card party when I realized that I was actually in labor with Kim. Nita and Corinne were so excited and all of our guests were busy eating and talking and absolutely ignoring me and my increasing situation that was demanding attention. Billy, with his nervous pacing, Corinne trying to give me celery sticks to eat and Nita carrying my suitcase around alerted our guests that it was time to go. Aunt Ree, Mother and my visiting Aunt Mary came to my house and we left. When I say WE I mean all of the guests went with us to St. Thomas Hospital. I went to the "forbidden territory for husbands" called the labor room and the guests went to the waiting room with their decks of cards and lots of conversation that alternately shocked and amused the nurses. After midnight when the Saturday became Sunday Kimberly decided to make her appearance. In those days there were no drugs that took away the pain and left the mother and father to observe the birth and welcome the newborn member of the family. Oh no, I was in la la land, Billy was in the waiting room with all of our friends and Kim was taken to the nursery for clean up and to be shown to the father through the glass window. Finally, Billy came to see me and told me that we had another girl. Since I had been convinced that this child would be a boy and named Kevin Ramsey I called her Kevin and went back to sleep. Not until sometime later did I get to meet this delightful, beautiful little girl with the blue eyes, round rosy cheeks, little heart shaped mouth that looked at me as if to say "I'm a girl. I am not Kevin. What do you think about that"? Well, I'll tell you what I thought - I was delighted and it never again entered my mind that a boy would have been a choice. In fact, in a family that already had two girls, a boy would have been a real problem. We brought Kim home from the hospital to a very small two-bedroom house in East Nashville and put her in her bed in our bedroom. There was no such thing as a nursery with all of the fine equipment that young people have now. We had a dog, named Trinka, that had stationed herself underneath the baby bed and there she slept every night as though she was guarding this child. I have often wished that I had a picture of Trinka and Kim. When she began to crawl Trinka would walk along beside her as if to say "don't worry I'll take care of her". It was a precious time in my life. We lived down the street from Aunt Ree and Uncle Pat and also my mother. I hear people talk about not wanting to live close to their parents. Let me tell you, it was wonderful for me. Every day Uncle Pat came after bath time to visit Kim and when she got older he would take her out in her stroller and visit with her under the trees for hours. Kim was loved, cuddled, admired and spoiled by all of us - including Nita and Corinne. Kim is now all grown up with a child of her own and a grandchildren of her own. I am quite honored that a lot of the things that she does for her children are exactly the things that I did with her. She has had a very "colorful" life - a short career in college, always had at least two jobs at a time, many friends and lived in many apartments (moved home several times also), had a "Cinderella Wedding and Reception", delivered the most wonderful baby boy named John Patrick. God put Brad Pigue into her life several years ago and he has been her protector, her advisor, her stabilizer and her friend. When we were all devastated with her diagnosis of cancer and times were dark and dreary, Brad kept us all encouraged by assuring us all that she would be better and she came through it with flying colors. We give honor and glory to God every day for Kim's cancer free reports each year.
So, I will close this Birthday Blog by saying that I hope Kimberly Cline Pigue has a lovely birthday and feels the love that I have for her, that her sisters have for her, that her friends have for her and we all know that she is evidence that God is good - all the time.
