First, Last, Always

                                          First, Last, Always


When a couple has waited six years for the birth of their first child, there is a hunger for parenthood that can be daunting. Interaction with other people's children becomes bittersweet.  Each month dreams are visited then they are gone.  As a result, when Mike and Ronnie realized that they were to become parents for the first time, it was their joy and long overdue.

Six years of being carefree and doing what they wanted, when they wanted was coming  to an end. Spontaneity had been the catchword in the early years of their marriage. In spite of it, there was always something missing.  There was always a hole in every holiday while sharing them with nieces and nephews. As the years passed, they each realized that there had to be more.

Robin Marie was born on January seventh 1972 and came into the world like a cool summer breeze, in January.  As anxious as her parents were to meet her, They were just as apprehensive about how they could possibly know what to do with a new baby. She made her debut on a Friday at 12:30PM. Her grandmother, who worked directly across the street at Candyland, came to meet her immediately.  Upon their first meeting her "Nana"s first comment was,

"She has skin like peaches and cream."

Her big brown eyes were opened right from the start and her petite face was framed by a crown of soft brown silken hair. 
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Now that Ronnie was a parent she decided to give up her full time job to stay home with her little girl till this child was old enough to care for herself. Never having had the luxury of parents at home when she was growing up, Ronnie knew how important her presence would be in Robin's life during those early years.. It meant that the income level  would change, but that was a small price to pay for a dream fulfilled.  She could no longer drop everything and join Mike on his boating and fishing expeditions. The satisfaction of a job that brought her something new every day was replaced by an achievement of a different kind. Something new was brought to her every day but with a gratification expected.

Mike continued working as hard as ever, but now took advantage of any opportunity to pick up additional income with side jobs and his knowledge of coins and precious metals.  That made for less time spent enjoying his family and his love of fishing and boating. He still had his boat but his first mate now had baby Robin, and baby duties always trump wife duties on boating and fishing. Mike was OK with that, however, and accepted that this was how life was to be for a while.

And so, their family was now complete.  They bought their first home in time for Robin’s arrival. It was a house that was perfect for the three of them.  Robin's room was her escape place and she loved it with all its bright shades of red and pink.  Her toy-boxes were over filled with stuffed animals, plastic hoo- haas, and all the toys a growing girl could possibly want. The front porch was converted into her play room with a toy stove, refrigerator, and table and chairs.  Her back yard was her own little world.  It was complete with a sandbox and all the tools to enhance creativity.  There was a swing set with slide, and eventually a pool was added to complete her kingdom.
 

Robin was an active child.  Even as a baby, she wanted to be doing something all the time.  She often squirmed out of holding arms to do her busy business.  One day while visiting her grandmother, she threw the house into a state of angst by scooting out of the kitchen while the adults were talking.  They all went on a hunt for her.  They tore the house apart looking for her.  All the closets were checked.  Under beds were checked.  Behind doorways were checked.  Then her mother was walking by the living room and heard her daughter’s familiar giggle.  There, sitting in the fireplace, among the cold ashes was a two year old, little char faced Robin, very pleased with herself for having fooled everyone.

At the age of two Ronnie came into the room to check on Robin while in her playpen and found Mike sitting in the playpen with his daughter playing with a spinning top.  One hundred and Ninety pounds of daddy playing with his little girl and all that could be heard was the joyful laughter of this child loving the moment.  Sharing in Robins activities was not unusual for Mike.  On the beach he would get into her red wagon and she would try to pull him.  A very special relationship was forming between these two.

By four years of age, Robin was having friends spend a great deal of time playing at her home. They sometimes spent nights or just an afternoon.  Because she was an only child, Ronnie wanted to have her have this interaction as often as Robin wanted.  She also interacted with her cousins who played an important part in her early development, as she was the youngest in a large family of kids from both sides.

Robin grew to love her dad's boat almost as much as he did.  When she was on it she took full charge.  She could be found anywhere from the pilot house to the galley feeling very comfortable and becoming adapt at anything nautical.

And so the scene was set for the next twelve years.  Robin went to a Catholic School and was an excellent student always in the top quarter of her class. She had more frienda than she could ever grow tired of, both boys and girls were loved her.  She was a generous girl with a big heart and all recognized this.  Jealousy and envy were never a part of who she was becoming.

As Robin bolted into adolescence, life became more chaotic.  With her entrance into high school, she brought a whole new group of friends from different neighborhoods across town.  By this time,  her parents began to loose the control which they tried to hold on to for as long as possible.  She was a strong willed person and each year was becoming increasingly more difficult.  Her first  year of high school brought her first real boyfriend.  Robin was never one to go with the majority.  She connected with a boy who had a bad reputation around town and she was convinced that he was misunderstood and did not believe there was any reason for people to not like him.  Getting this boy out of her life proved to be a daunting task for her parents and ultimately it was not accomplished  until they moved to another town in her sophomore year and she left this boy with all his problems behind her and found yet another group of friends to fill her mind and heart.

At the same time, she moved across the street from the boy who eventually became the love of her life, Paul.  When she saw him for the first time, working on his car, she asked his father if he had a girlfriend.  His father told her that his car was the only girlfriend Paul had time for.  Her only comment to that was, not anymore.  We will see about that.

  Time proved to be a healer of all wounds from the past and life went back to normal for this family as Robin grew to be a beautiful young woman.  She graduated from high school and went on to a successful education at Business Collage.  She was always at the top of her class.  She was a young woman in love.  Her courtship with Paul was a whirlwind of parties and ski trips, and just hanging together and growing closer and closer.  Living right across the street from one another was the best benefit of all.  They each treated one another’s parents like they were their own.  It was all very good.

Robin and Paul married when Robin was twenty-two years old.  They had a beautiful wedding and all their friends were in the wedding party.  The wedding was one not to be forgotten by most.  It was more joy and laughter than anyone should be allowed.

Robin and Paul moved into their new home right after the wedding and life only got better from that point on. Eventually, after two years, their son Paul Andrew was born.  He was the light of their lives and sealed their marriage with the cement of life.  He was a beautiful baby, adored by his parents and all grandparents.  When he was four years old his brother Christian was born and with him came a sense of humor that ignited the fires of the whole family.

Robin was a wonderful wife and mother to her husband and sons.  There was nothing she would not do for anyone of them.  There were many challenges of parenthood with her sons.  Each of her boys were spirited and neither of them lacked the same strong will as their mother. Whenever one of her  sons  brought on a new problem, she took it on with the strength of a mother lion.  She stood behind her boys with a resilience not shared by many and never gave up on either of them
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Today this only child, mother, wife friend lives for and with her family and is forever the heart to all of them.  She runs her home like a military person. She paints, cleans, decorates and loves the house she shares with the men in her life. She shares in her husband’s love of boating and treats their boat like a second home.  Whatever husband Paul decides he is interested in accomplishing, sometimes she may not understand it but never questions his choices or stands in his way.

She has a community of friends and gives herself to each of them.  She honors her parents with a love and respect to be admired.  Most important, she has two loving sons who are fully aware of how fortunate they are to have a mother of her caliber.
 
Whoever said that only children are anything less than children who come from a large family did not know Robin.  She is one outstanding only child.  I am proud to call her my kid.  She has a tenacity to be admired, a love of life without limits, and a heart that is big enough to love the ones who love her.


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