J is for Action JACKSON

The evening was sometime in October 2004. The place was the Southside Plaza Café in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The people present were Sandy, Frank, Wendy (their daughter), and Todd (Wendy’s husband). I hope I didn’t jump up on the table and do the happy dance when Wendy calmly said, “We have something to tell you. We’re going to have a baby!” I think what I did was throw my arms up in the air and yell, “YESSSSS!”

You see, Wendy had been married before and had our sweet Corey, who at the time of the announcement was sixteen. Wendy and her first husband had divorced when Corey was about six years old, and Corey and her mother had moved to New Mexico when she was eight. Wendy and Todd had been married for several years, and we had all given up hope of a baby for them. So this announcement was music to our ears. Frank and I would be grandparents to two children. We never thought that would happen.

You can probably imagine that even though all of us adults were ecstatic, Corey was not very excited, and that’s an understatement. She was somewhat mortified to think of what her parents had been doing, and she was also a good bit jealous to think that she’d have to share grandparents. She was the only grandchild on both sides of her family.

Wendy and Todd took Corey with them to the appointment in which the doctor would announce the sex of the baby. When they all looked at the picture and saw what they were looking for, Corey, too, shouted “YESSSSS!” The sonogram showed that there was a baby boy growing and getting ready to join his big sister. You see, what Corey had been unhappy about was the chance that the baby would be a girl. Somehow in her sixteen-year-old mind, she saw a sister as someone to be jealous over but a brother as someone to be proud of. Now we were all happy! Since we are such a small family, happiness is always a good thing.

The naming of the baby wasn’t difficult for Wendy and Todd: He’d be named for Frank and Jay (Frank Jackson Young) and one of Todd’s best friends in his teenage years (Matthew). So Jackson Matthew Yocham had his name a long time before he entered the world. I would have been happy for us to call him “Jay,” but Wendy insisted that he have his own name and be called “Jackson” and certainly not “Jackie.” So Jackson he was!

He was supposed to arrive in June, but he decided that the day for his mom to go to the hospital would be May 17, my mother’s birthday; however, he wanted his very own day of birth and didn’t arrive until May 21, three days before his mother’s forty-second birthday. Since he would be a preemie, Wendy and Todd had to go to Albuquerque for his birth instead of where their doctor was, in Santa Fe. That was okay, though. Albuquerque was closer for the other grandparents to go on the morning of May 21, the scheduled day for him to arrive.

The four of us—Darlene, Ron (Todd’s parents) Frank, and I—met in the waiting room around 10:00 that Saturday morning. Corey, since she was to be present for the birth, came out every once in a while and gave a report on her mom’s progress. Wendy’s labor was induced, so we knew Jackson would make his appearance sometime that day, hopefully earlier rather than later. The last time Corey came to the waiting room, she looked exhausted. After all, she had been through a lot that morning. (Smile!) She plopped down in the chair next to me and announced for all to hear, “I’m NEVER having any children!” We all thought that was a good thing for a seventeen-year-old to think, but we hoped that she’d change her mind when she got older and married.

So . . . Jackson, who was immediately termed “Little Man” by his proud dad, became a part of our very small family (now there’d be six of us) around 1:00 p.m. on May 21, 2005. Immediately, some of us called him Action Jackson, and he has earned this epithet through the years. Corey is our Firstborn, and Jackson is our Secondborn. They’re all we’ll ever have and all we need because our hearts are full to overflowing with love for these two grandchildren. Well . . . I guess if a miracle happened and we had another grandchild, we’d still have room!

Look at those big baby blues!

                                           Jackson and Pop!

 

Jackson wants to be a "phrotographer" when he grows up, just like his mom!

Firstborn and Secondborn