Mother was born at home in 1928 four miles outside the tiny town of Cuthand, Texas. The irascible old doctor who was summoned to attend her delivery arrived after she did. He hastily checked out mother and baby and headed to his next call.
Kathleen’s impoverished parents didn’t send for a copy of Kathleen’s birth certificate till she was thirteen and neede it to qualify her for an allotment as a military dependent during World War II. To their surprise, after a lengthy investigation, they found out the ancient doctor had forgotten the information he’d been given and randomly filed Kathleen’s name as Bessie May Rosie Holdaway.
Kathleen had never been particularly been fond of her given name until she found she could have been laboring under the burdensome name of Bessie May Rosie.
Nutsrok 
Girls are notorious for disliking their given names, and a lot of girls who hate their first name will go by their middle name if it’s any improvement over the first. When our girls were born I flirted with the idea of giving each of them three names (in addition to the family name) to give them more choices, but I restrained myself.
Sigh… naming babies is tricky business.
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It ‘s a wonder if you pleased them.
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I had my baby at home with a midwife. Spent most of my labor in the rocking chair, very peaceful. Took a bath in the middle, which stopped the contractions while I was in and made them more efficient after I got out. The women in my family tend to have our babies face up, which is far less than ideal, but I sure wasn’t sorry to give that hospital a miss. We’d already turned her, or she would have been breach, too, and I’d have had to go, then.
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Wow? Where was this?
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Boston, Massachusetts, in the early ’80’s.
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Dr. Mehrling was a dearly loved pediatrician and allergist. He could quote Bible verses with more accuracy than many pastors.
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Sounds like a very good man.
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Damn things were different then to how they are today, that said I have no idea what it was like here way back in those days, the name Bessie May Rosie sounds a bit much although I like the name May or as mum would spell it Mae
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I had an Aunt named Bessie May. Bessie is nickname for more formal Elizabeth. My aunt was just plain Bessie amay.
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I bet it was very common with the old house call doctor’s.
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You know it had to be. One person could only do so much.
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What a lucky miss for Bessie May!
John’s dad had to get a birth certificate when he was volunteering for the army in world war II. The doctor who delivered him said he wouldn’t fill out a birth certificate because he would just have to fill out the death certificate in a few days. Dad didn’t die, even though he was not alive officially.
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Boy, that was blunt. Thank goodness he was wrong.
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Boy! Talk about a terrible bedside manner! 😱
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Impoverished to that degree … very sad. :-(
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No kidding. They farmed and only bought coffee, sugar, flour, and lamp oil. Everything else they grew. They canned all they could use and gave away a lot. Nobody had money.
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… different life, strong, self-reliant people!
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Sure were’ i admire them.
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