ROBERT, HEIDI AND TIARE

When Robby was six weeks old I became pregnant with my second child who happened to be a girl. I named her Heidi after one of my favorite children's stories and she had that sweet little white face with dark hair. She was a breeze. She wasn't hungry, or fussy but she got very very sick when she was 2 mos old with a high fever. I was so worried but she recovered well.

I was having a terrible time though. Dickie was drinking a lot. He was mean. He wouldn't help me even though I was bleeding a lot after the birth. I actually remember I thought I would bleed to death and he refused to take me to the doctor.

Robby was walking and trying to always get out the door and run...Heidi was her quiet little sweet self. She had straight black hair and a little crooked nose. (which did finally straighten out)

I was ISOLATED from all my friends and family. We only had one car so I only had a neighbor to talk to. Her name was Thelma Moss. She was so kind.She did keep her distance though. She probably thought he was a raging maniac.

. Dickie was extremely jealous and possessive and a cleaning fanatic...he checked the baseboards for cleanliness and I was a bit afraid of him. The first real dinner party we had was for his office friends. He was now selling insurance. I made meatloaf, baked potatoes and salad. I cleaned the house from top to bottom and had the 2 dogs and 2 babys to watch.
The first guests began arriving and came into the living room to a big pile of dog POOP..my little cocker spanials were not happy about all this company and got too excited...
.........then, the oven stated smoking and all the baking potatoes were burning and on fire.That did it. The next day I was so upset at everything, I called my doctor, my baby's doctor and cried my heart out.
Dr. Miller came from the city ..drove to Tiburon, to take me and the kids to one of his friends houses to talk and hear her story. HER child had drowned in their pool.

In other words, Jody, get into perspective. I still couldn't stand it. We were in debt because we could not afford the payments for this new home but Dickie insisted that we buy it with my mothers' money (it wasn't that much of a down payment, really.) We were in debt and I was over worked and overwhelmed with loneliness and being so far from my friends and any family. I was so close to a breakdown. All I could think of was moving back to Hawaii. Our home went up for forclosure, Dickie filed bankrupcy and we did move back...now we had three kids. Robby, Heidi and Tiare.

Tia was born at French Hospital 14 monthes after Heidi was born. She was born 15 min after I entered the hospital door...Dickie and the two kids and I were at the Drive Inn theater in San Rafael, watching The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen when I went in to hard labor. We rushed over the Golden Gate Bridge in our little VW Bug and almost had her on the way. Tiare was born in 1963 with curly locks and a lot of spunk in the first room that had a gurney in it. She was also pretty shy and quiet. She slept her first few months in a dresser drawer...it worked just fine...it was on the floor.

I always loved the name Tiare, a fragrant flower known in Tahiti, and one day at the park in Tiburon, before she was born, I had the 2 kids playing with another little girl who was with her grandmother. Her grannie called her "Tia" and that was so cute, I thought, and asked about her real name and it was Tiare. That was it. If my next baby was a girl, she would be Tiare. So it was.