t the end of January, 1943, my parents were waiting for their first child to be born. On the 25th my mother started having what appeared to my father to be the onset of labor pains. He told her, "I guess it won't be long now."

She replied, "Oh, no! I'm going to have the baby on the 30th, your birthday."

On his 41st birthday, my mother presented him with the gift she had promised, my sister, Linda.

Linda Ann Francis Smith