Mother's Day Week~Honoring My Only Daughter, Jessica, The Best Mother Ever

The very best mother I've ever known is my only daughter, Jessica Layne Duncan Magill. She is the mom we all wish we had. Devoted to her son, Kellan, she spends endless hours making sure he has all the best in everything. Jessica wasn't supposed to have children. Through prayer and a tremendous effort on her part, she was able to complete an IVF and have a little boy.

When she was 34 years old, Jessica was told she couldn't have children. Her physical problems had overwhelmed her body, rendering it impossible to carry a child to term,

 let alone allow her to get pregnant in the first place.

Since being a mother was her life's and heart's desire, Jessica refused to accept that diagnosis.

She asked for a miracle from God, and asked all of us to pray for one.

She insisted her doctor perform surgery on her to prep her for the possibility of a pregnancy even if it wasn't going to happen. The kindly old doctor from South Florida relented, though he kept counselling her that it didn't mean things would change since she had multiple issues. He did encourage and support her, though, and told her anything was possible, and that

 he would do his best to insure she had a wonderful ground to "grow on."

Once that was prepped, she began a series of hormone treatments to stabilize her system which was completely out of balance and malfunctioning. It had been for years, which was unbeknownst to us.

Then, after several months, she and her Coastie (Coast Guard) husband got permission for funding from the Guard, rallied support from her family, and sought a fertility clinic.

Jess and Kev named themselves: The Magill In It To Win It Team!

At the clinic, the doctor and nurse assistant looked over her chart and were skeptical. They considered all she'd been through and all she'd done to set the stage for her conception. However, the doctor said he had a 95% success rate and he would do all he could to make a baby happen for Jessica and Kevin. They were fully committed to the Magill Team "In It To Win It" goal.

The nurse practitioner, Lynn, was Jessica's biggest supporter at the fertility clinic. Encouraging her when the shots and medications hurt Jessica tremendously, leaving her body battered, black and blue...welted and sore. Lynn would call, taking a personal interest in her, telling her she would make it and not to worry.

Jessica never lost hope or faith. She endured all with a warrior woman's strength.

She would have her baby at all costs, and she wouldn't be denied.

Even after the loss of her first IVF fetuses, she kept up the battle.

The second try worked! And, though Kellan was a preemie, he came through with flying colors. A C-section baby...he had surgery on his lungs and was in the NICU for 3 weeks, but he was the strongest child there and came home perfectly well and happy.

While still on the table, directly after the C-section, the doctors operated removing a benign tumor they had though was cancer all during her pregnancy. One which she had refused to let them take when her Kellan was 4 months in utero because it would jeopardize his life. She said she would take her

chances that it wasn't cancer for the sake of having her baby. Her courage got her Kellan home safely, and her own good report.

She insisted they save her uterus in the surgery, as well, so she could have more children, if possible.

Amazing girl, amazing mother.

Now, Kellan is nearly 4 years old. His intelligence has been tested at a 7-9 year old level. He's a kind and thoughtful child who loves to read and play with his iPad daily. Read with his mother, I mean. She reads him about 10 books per night! He insists...and this doesn't mean baby picture books. He wants to hear chapter books, and has since he was about 2 1/2. He's a brilliant child in every subject. And he's very strong willed just like his mother! :]

 Those plethora of vitamins and supplements she took to insure a strong and brainy child must have worked their own miracles!

Jessica believes in her heart that Kellan will not be an only child. And though her body fights against her on every avenue, she will not be beaten. And, of course, there are other ways to have a child.

She's a brave heart. She's the one who will not take "no" for an answer.

I think she's gotten this from the Scottish side of her heritage.

She's a mother of real strength and compassion.

Jessica is also a trained professional in the work of teaching developmentally delayed children, and those with autism and asbergers. From the time she was 12 years old she's volunteered and worked with disadvantaged and institutionalized children.

She has a heart for children, and I believe she has been a mother to many.

Jessica Duncan Magill is the finest of any mother I know.

I'm very proud to call her my only daughter on this Mother's Day. 

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Dear Mr. Sendak, We'll miss you.

Our beloved "Wild Thing" has gone back to his island in his little boat where he will undoubtedly be greeted by many a beastie and wild thing who has loved and missed him over many years. It will be such a loss for those of us still left over here in The Night Kitchen...sleeping in our restless beds, waiting for the bread to be baked and our milk to be poured.

He died yesterday at age 83.

When my children were old enough to sit and listen to music and to my reading to them, I bought Carol King's rendition of "I'm Really Rosie" and all the other Maurice Sendak books and poems to music. "Rosie" was a favorite of my daughter's. But, I have sung "Chicken Soup" to my children hundreds of times, as well as to my grandchildren and other children, over the course of nearly 40 years. I've sung it with passion and acted it out because

I know it by heart.

I most recently bought a set of Mr. Sendak's tiny library for my youngest grandsons. One of whom was pictured hiding under a table with a little red one in his tiny hands.

His dad did the same thing 30 years prior.

Maurice doesn't age, you see.

"I Don't Care" kept my grandson, Kellan, on the sofa and quiet when he had a blazing ear infection last year. He loves to hear me sing it to him whenever we get a chance.

Kellan is sometimes a petulant child, and that poem suits him just fine. :]

It and he are adorable!

And, "One Was Johnny" used to give us all a run for our money. I remember all my children and me during the years trying to keep up with that song!

I know all the songs/poems by heart.

I've read "Where the Wild Things Are" hundreds of times, have you? I've purchased "wild thing" paraphernalia for my children and grands over the past 40 years, and wished I was young enough to wear them and play with them myself. Even now, I'd take a Wild Thing stuffed animal, thank you.

So, here's to you, Mr. Sendak....and, actually,

Hail, to the Chief!

Good-night, dear friend.

My little family and I love you and will really miss you.

A Small Note About Him from Galley Cat: (mediabistro.com)

Brooklyn-born children’s writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak. Sendak grew up in Bensonhurst and graduated Lafayette High School before going on to create wildly popular works—often dark and with an edge—like Where the Wild Things Are, which won him the prestigious Caldecott Medal. Even before his passing, the Brooklyn Book Festival had planned to honor Mr. Sendak with a special bookmark given to attendees at this year’s festival on September 23, a fitting tribute from Brooklyn—the Creative Capital of New York City and home to more writers per square inch than anywhere—to one of its native sons. On behalf of literary lovers throughout Brooklyn and beyond, I extend our thoughts and prayers to Maurice Sendak’s family, friends and colleagues.”

Please take time to read about him in this long, dedicated article on Mr. Sendak by The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/books/maurice-sendak-childrens-author-dies-at-83.html?_r=1


Deborah/TheBookishDame


Please leave your comments. Do you have a favorite memory of Mr. Sendak's works?