4. Her name is Marissa

The snow had smothered the entire county a week before. My two step daughters had been on their winter break from school a total of three weeks so far. Everyone was enjoying the snow emergency that had restricted any traveling the past few days. As usual, I was rebellious. My husband was enjoying a rare, mid afternoon nap until I jolted him into reality with a barely audible whisper, "I am in labor." Tharon, my husband, jerked his body into a rigid, upright position. He jumped up and immediately turned looking at me with an expression of confusion. “How are we gonna get you to the hospital? Better yet how are we gonna get you to the car?” he said as he pulled the curtains to the side of the window to look at the dilemma at hand. “I’m gonna call my mom and see what she says.” Was the only response I could come up with at the time that seemed appropriate.
I called my mom to let her know that her second grandchild had picked a snowstorm to arrive in and asked her her opinion in how I should go about getting to the hospital. She suggested I call an ambulance. After getting off the phone I went to Tharon, who was in the bedroom putting on layers of clothing and asked him if he wanted me to call an ambulance. He asked about my contractions and I told him they were mild, however my water had broken and that was my immediate concern. Anything could happen at this point and I did not want to have this baby at home. He returned to the window in the living room looking out to the front of the house. The snow was about four foot deep in the front of our house. It lay parallel with the front step and there was no path to the street. We hadn’t bothered to shovel and the kids footsteps had been long since covered in fresh snow that had seemed to never end.
I called the hospital and told them of my condition and to expect my arrival at some point and asked for their suggestion on how I should get there. The nurse reminded me of the snow emergency and suggested I call an ambulance. After hanging up the phone I did call for an ambulance. They responded in about five minutes to my home. I sat patiently, watching them arrive. I chuckled as I watched my husband struggle to lift boulders of snow with a pathetically small shovel, attempting to make a path for me to get to the ambulance. Momentarily, a backhoe pulled up and began to dig out the snow in a narrow path leading to my front door. Approximately twenty minutes after the ambulance arrived I was on my way to the hospital. Twelve hours later I had a beautiful, healthy baby girl and had a memory of labor to beat all.