Chapter 48
New Life

Katie was up and out of bed within two days. Everything about her was changed. You’d have never known she just lost a baby. It was as if she had made a decision to be different from now on—which she had!—and was determined to act accordingly. And of course, God living inside her made the biggest difference of all!

All of a sudden, she was down at our place all the time. It reminded me of the time before Pa and Almeda had been married. There was Katie again in our house, bustling about the kitchen, helping with everything. Now Almeda was being pampered and cared for—with Katie and the three of us girls all taking care of her. I usually went into town to handle the business at the freight office. Doc Shoemaker came out every day. Pa wandered about, not able to get much work done for nervousness, but hardly able to get near Almeda—as much as he wanted to help—for all the women tending to her!

After all that had happened, the birth of Pa and Almeda’s baby came almost as a routine event in our lives. It was, of course, one of the greatest things that had ever happened, but there was no huge crisis like there’d been with Katie. One morning about two and a half weeks later, Almeda calmly said to Katie, “I think my labor’s begun. You’d better send Drummond for the doctor.”

The birthing wasn’t routine for Pa! He scurried around like a nervous old lady! He sent Zack for Doc Shoemaker. He didn’t leave Almeda’s side for a second until the Doc came and shooed everyone out of the bedroom.

Almeda’s labor lasted about five hours. I don’t know whether it was as painful as Katie’s, but she didn’t cry out like Katie had. About the middle of the afternoon, all of us except Doc and Katie were gathered in the big room. Suddenly we heard some shouts and exclamations, followed by the cry of a baby.

Pa jumped out of his chair and was off to the bedroom like a shot! The doctor tried to keep him out for a few more minutes, but it was no use.

For the next hour the whole house was like a beehive—nobody could sit or stand still for a second. There were kids and men and women, the doctor and Katie and Uncle Nick—everyone moving to and fro, cleaning and congratulating and laughing and talking. Mrs. Gianini was there too—there was hardly a birthing for miles around Miracle Springs that she didn’t attend.

Late in the afternoon, after things were more or less back to normal, Doc Shoemaker let us go into the bedroom one at a time and have a visit with Almeda and to see her and Pa’s little daughter. Almeda gave me such a smile when I walked in! For the first time in my life, I found myself wondering what it would be like to become a mother.

“What do you think of your new baby sister, Corrie?” she said.

“She’s wonderful.” What else could I say? She truly was!

They named her Ruth. “Ruth has long been one of my favorite Bible women,” said Almeda. “God took a foreigner from a strange land and grafted her into the royal line of his people. That’s just how I feel to be married to your father,” she told me. “So blessed of God beyond what I deserve. Our daughter’s name will always remind me of God’s goodness in bringing me, like Ruth, from a distant place to give me a new life here.”

There was a bit of a dispute over little Ruth’s middle name, with both Pa and Almeda showing that they wanted to honor the other above themselves.

“Parrish has gotta be her middle name,” said Pa.

“But I was only a Parrish for a few years,” objected Almeda. “How can we name our daughter after my first husband?”

“Ain’t no different than naming her after my first wife.” Almeda wanted to use the name Agatha in honor of Ma.

“That’s completely different,” said Almeda. “Your Aggie is the mother of my children now. I love her because of them.”

“That may be,” said Pa. “But I’m still mighty grateful for what Mr. Parrish did for you. If it hadn’t been for him, you wouldn’t be walking with God now, and wouldn’t be my wife. I owe the man plenty, and some day I’m gonna shake his hand and tell him so. Besides, I first knew you as a Parrish, and I kinda like the name!”

In the end they compromised and used both names. She became Ruth Agatha Parrish Hollister.