Nora O’Brien arrived just as St. Patrick’s Day festivities were in full swing in Midcoast bars and restaurants, the corned beef and cabbage, “Danny Boy” and foaming beer mugs a world away from the quiet, softly-lit room in Pen Bay Medical Center, where she made her entrance. Hanji Chang and Andy O’Brien, my son and daughter-in-law, are her parents. She’s continued a family tradition by appearing on a holiday; like her father, uncles, and mother who arrived on Thanksgiving, New Years Day, Veterans Day, and the Fourth of July respectively, Nora will always have a parade on her birthday.

 Nora’s entrance into the outside world of air and sound and light was well attended as her dad, one grandma and an aunt sat with her mom through the long night and day of labor. Every woman who’s ever given birth recalls those hours, the hardest work I’ve ever done, I always say. And then, the miracle happens: instantly, the pain and effort end and as a friend wrote me this morning “my son was flopped onto my belly, cord attached, and stayed there for two years.”  

 Like all first babies, her arrival has made parents of the two who conceived her. Simplistic and obvious, isn’t it, yet such a profound change. Wrote my eloquent friend about attending births: “Sometimes it felt like being in an animated Disney movie. I expected to see bluebirds and hearts and stars circling round the new mother's head.”

 As I write, Nora and her mom are still in the hospital, due to come home today. Another friend remembered that day, when he and his wife brought home their first, scared to death (“I’d never held a baby in my life,” he said). They’d wrapped the baby up so tightly he couldn’t move.

 Nora Jin O’Brien, aka Zhang Luo Ya, will grow up speaking three languages, her grandmother’s Korean, her mother’s Mandarin, and her Maine family’s English. Both of her grandfathers have passed away, but her middle name honors one and memories of the other, my Wally, spill out spontaneously as we recall how happy he’d be.

 Perhaps it’s the jumbled up heritage Wally and I brought to our marriage, he not knowing who his father was, me not knowing either of my parents, that makes genetics seem so central. Little Nora Jin carries genes from around the world, from Asia – Taiwan and Korea, from Europe – British Isles and Germany, to Maine where they all combined to make this new being.

 She was barely an hour old as I watched Sammeh Choi with her first grandchild, gently uncurling those tiny fingers again and again, marveling at their perfection. I did the same thing with my own first-born, seeing for the first time someone I was actually related to.

Chess fans, check out the play by play recap of the recent K-6 State Chess Tournament held at University of Maine’s Orono campus a couple of weeks ago – as exciting as any soccer or basketball game!

Librarian Elizabeth Eudy says it will be “a mellow week at the Library with the not-so-mellow knitters gathering for a bonus meet on Tuesday from 4 until 6.  Bring your crochet, your knitting, or other needlework; all are welcome to join this fun and encouraging group.

The Writing Group will meet at 9 a.m. on Friday with Sheila.  The group, which meets twice a month to share ideas and writings, always welcomes newcomers.