You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today and then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun (Pink Floyd)

Picture taken 37 years ago by Jacky

Wie geht's?

This is hardly an original thought, but doesn't life just speed away when you look backwards.

On the 18th of December 1984, our first born - Keegan Warren Purdy was safe and warm and quite comfortable where he was thank you. He was ten days late arriving and had to be encouraged to come out and face the world. 

Then - finally, on the 19th of December, he was born.

Thirty-seven years ago. 

I don't need to try very hard to remember 19/12/84 but some distinct flashbacks make me question how it can be that these things happened 37 years ago!

• New Plymouth Base Hospital's maternity wing.
• The epidural process.
• Jacky telling me to get something to eat because it was going to take a while.
• Eating a McDonalds' meal on the steps of the maternity wing. Getting back to the ward just as things started kicking off.
• The birth itself - and crying at the miracle I was witnessing.
• Jacky saying, "That wasn't too bad" about a minute after the all day labour.
• Holding Keegan in my hands as Jacky slept. Feeling about as content and proud and grateful as it's possible to feel.

All very vivid in my mind, 37 years after the fact.

Happy birthday Keegan.  

Love - dad