Mimi's coming

Mimi's coming for her birthday next Sunday. Her given name is Jeremy Johanna Bradley, given the names of her two godmothers (who never come through in good ways, by the way) Sister Jeremy Daigler, a Sister of Mercy I worked with one summer and Victoria Johanna Handwerk, the wife of an Episcopal priest we knew well for years.

But, for all that, even though my plan was to call her J.J., she became Mimi because she was a horrible baby who cried for six months and then became the best baby and best kid and best teen and best young woman daughter ever. When she cried and cried and cried and arched and struggled against being held for those first six months, her 3 year old brother, Josh, would sing to her like this: "Jer-e-mimi, mimi, mimi". And it stuck.

Her birthday is Monday, July 21. We'll celebrate on the evening of the 20th, when she comes to us from the Berkshires. My baby girl will be 36 in a week. Imagine that! I can't, I'll tell you that....

She and Tim, who will become her husband on October 12 in Brooklyn, with me presiding, go on vacation with us every September for at least five years now. We love him only slightly less than we love Mimi. Really.

I talked with her on the phone tonight. She wants a grilled meal for her birthday dinner. She--for 35 years and 6 months--has been an 'easy' child. Something on the grill will do--not going out somewhere in New Haven.

Those first six months though, that was madness. I still think I'm catching up on sleep I missed almost 36 years ago!

We've talked about it, Bern and I, what happened to that baby from Hell, who bore no relationship to
'easy-baby-Josh'. Bern says, simply, at the age of six months, "her brain flipped", and we were lucky to get rid of all the badness in one six month period so early on. All the badness.

Since then she, besides the normal stuff you could expect from any 'good child', has been golden.

Sunday and Monday will be so wondrous, so special, so like Mimi....