Chapter 27

The morning after the pot luck supper we headed back over to our island to start our life as Mr. and Mrs. Wally Brinkley. Later that fall we got away on a belated honeymoon. The trip to Hawaii was wonderful and Jennifer enjoyed every moment of our time there. The trip was made memorable for another reason – Jennifer discovered she was pregnant.

Jennifer had a fairly routine pregnancy and once the early bouts of ‘morning sickness’ ended, she enjoyed her life as a mother-to-be. Her pregnancy meant that we needed to get ready for the new child and that managed to keep Jennifer busy for a while, making sure she had everything we’d need to look after the baby. A side effect – a nice one – was that Jennifer seemed hornier than she had been and that’s saying a lot. I wondered if I was going to survive until the baby came.

Finally, the time was near for the baby to be born. After a lot of discussion we finally agreed that Jennifer would spend the last couple of weeks with Elizabeth and Helen. At first, Jennifer had been adamant that she was going to have our child on our island but I finally convinced her that if anything went wrong during the birth, the last place we’d want her to be was out on our island. I stayed on the island for the first week then got Faye, our ‘cabin sitter’ to come out to look after the animals and allow me to be with Jennifer.

I’d only been back on the main island for two days when Jennifer gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. At first we’d discussed naming the child after one of the grandparents but realized that this might not be a wise idea. Whichever grandparent wasn’t chosen might feel slighted and the tenuous relationship we had with her families might be broken. In the end we chose a name of our own – Bethany.

Shortly after Bethany was born, Jennifer told me she’d like to have another child – but not for a couple of years. “I’d like Bethany to be at least two before we start trying again,” I agreed and soon Jennifer was back on ‘the pill’.

Over the next two years it was a joy to watch Bethany grow. I realized just how much I had missed with the 2 boys that Mary and I had produced and I made the most out of helping raise Bethany. Once Bethany was toddling around, it was easy to find Maggie and Ralph. Neither of them were far away from Bethany. One day I saw Bethany lying on the floor, sound asleep, her head on Maggie as if Maggie was a pillow and with Ralph curled up at her side.

Not long after Bethany turned two, Jennifer and I agreed it was time to try for a second child. It didn’t take long and Jennifer told me she was pregnant again. “Ready to cuddle another baby?” she asked that evening as we lay in bed cuddled up to one another.

As we’d done when she was pregnant with Bethany, we made sure to visit the obstetrician regularly. During one of these visits, the doctor told Jennifer that she was pregnant with twins. I was delighted – two babies to cuddle.

We’d started preparing Bethany for the arrival of a new baby. “One day soon Mommy is going to bring a new baby brother or sister to live with us,” we told Bethany. She asked a few questions (‘when’, ‘what’s the baby’s name’, ‘where are you going to get it from’) and a few others. We tried to explain things in the simplest terms but I don’t think Bethany really understood things.

As Jennifer’s pregnancy progressed it got harder for her to do things as she became quite large. Bethany finally understood that the new baby was ‘in mommy’s tummy’ and delighted at feeling it move. We never tried to explain that there were two babies in mommy’s tummy. We just decided to make it a surprise.

Finally the time had come for Jennifer and I to go to Vancouver. Jennifer had been dead set against having the babies at anywhere other than the main island but finally the obstetrician with the help of Elizabeth and Helen convinced her that there were just too many possibilities for complications with twin births.

With the ‘cabin sitter’ in place and Bethany staying with ‘Aunty Elizabeth’ and ‘Aunty Helen’, we headed south. As it turned out it was none too soon as just over a week after we arrived in Vancouver, the twins were born – identical boys. We named the boys Michael and Mark. A couple who had been friends of Jennifer’s parents had twin boys named Michael and Mark and Jennifer liked the sound of their names and so did I.