Summer this year seems to be trying a little too hard\u2014even the Olympians in Paris struggled to cope\u2014but for women about to give birth, the heat can make even an easy day a burden. My mom had two August babies. I was one of them. And I know for sure she didn\u2019t have many easy days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In search of an unusual way to open the memoir I\u2019m writing, I tried imagining what it might have been like in my mother\u2019s much-frequented womb. (I was the sixth child to join the clan.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was not likely a time in my mother\u2019s life when the news of a new baby would bring joyful anticipation. She had five children already\u2014surviving on leftovers and hand-me-downs\u2014a husband who was, well, less than supportive, and an old-school Irish mother who was more inclined to point out her daughter\u2019s mistakes than lend a helping hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What, I wondered, was it like for mother and child to have such an inauspicious start together? A time of worry and dread? Maybe. A time to curse the fates and give up on happy outcomes? Maybe not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a look at how things might have been, here\u2019s \u201cEarly Signs of Life,\u201d published in the journal Ellipsis<\/em>: https:\/\/www.ellipsiszine.com\/early-signs-of-life-by-mary-ann-mcguigan\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, in case you\u2019re under seventy, here\u2019s the George M. Cohan song: https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/watch?v=9JdQDff4QcE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n