So, I must preface my writing about my second child, Megan, by saying that she has an extensive file of blackmail pictures, and videos of me:) It seems like any time I was out in the barn or anywhere else, looking or doing something that you would not want recorded for posterity – she and her phone camera were there!
My earliest memories of my sweet “little baby” Megan, were laying in a hospital bed at AGH while the Doctor tried to turn her, so that she would not be, what we recently learned in nursing school, a Frank Breach. This was a month before her due date, but there was no budging her, stubborn already – even at 36 weeks:) By the time she was born by caesarean section, she was 10lbs 2oz and 23 inches long. Firmly entrenched in her rear end first, legs over her head position! She blames the fact that her immune system was not always up to par, for the fact that she did not get to come out the usual way, to get the “big squeeze” as Professor Rita puts it, and to be exposed to all my good bacteria. I offered her a solution to this recently when I caught her taking more candid photos, but she declined!
Megan often worried me as a baby, when it would be 10 am, and she had still not woken up. Many a time I opened her nursery door, afraid I was going to find her not breathing. Her sister, Kaley, was always up before dark. But, no worries, it was just the start of a long lifetime of trying to get her out of bed in the morning at a decent hour:) She still is nocturnal, which works well when working a night shift at a hospital, not so well when Mom had to drag her out of bed every morning for school!
Another memory was all of her emergency room trips, broken arm on monkey bars at 2. Only took her a couple days to figure out how to use the cast as a weapon. Riding a pony in a horse show, that ran her to the fence and dumped her in a garbage can….my girls were/are very active.
Then there was the gorgeous Trans Am she had in high school. It ran great, and very fast, as her endless number of speeding tickets could prove – until the day she accidently filled it with diesel instead of gas! From there she went on to her faithful old Honda, that got her through many a fender bender, ok one of them was me backing into her in our round-a-bout in front of the barn. Megan gave me a run for my money in high school, but we both survived it.
Megan was beautiful, tall, 6′ plus that half an inch that made her taller than both her brothers, and very athletic. She chose to use those attributes, plus her left hand advantage to excel in both paintball, and martial arts. I played with her on two of her paintball teams. I had a blast, even if I was a chicken, and would fake a hit if I was the only one left and knew I was about to be nailed by 6 opposing players! My favorite memory was the all women’s team we had. We used all signals relating to female menstruation, to gross out the males we played. For our barrel plugs, we tied strings to the end so they hung out. I was doing a lot of speaking at conventions at this time, so got tired of explaining away all the bruises I was covered with, when I had to wear gowns on stage:) She was a very intimidating MMA fighter – her arms and legs could reach through and contact just about any opponent. Most of them backed out of their fights when they saw her in person. Her weight was very light, so going by that she was much taller than most of her competitors.
Megan was also forever bringing home animals she found that needed to be rescued. If there was a hurt, sick, or abandoned animal anywhere in her vicinity, it ended up at my house. also applied to friends that needed a place to hang out. I still have her Chihuahua, 2 cats, two birds, and 2 of her fish tanks here:) At some point she decided to transfer these healing skills to human beings.
Today, Megan is an incredible ICU nurse up at a Shock and Trauma Center near Annapolis. Her stubbornness as a child is what got her through nursing school in spite of some illnesses, and tragedies that happened while she was in school. She also always was fighting ADD, and other learning difficulties along the way. She is a real fighter, and overcomer, and I am so proud of the woman she has become. I hope that if I am ever on an ICU floor, I have a nurse as dedicated as Megan:)