Update on Twins and other stuff

Vanessa came to the Easter Gathering on Sunday. She is looking very well and happy. The babies are still in hospital but she hopes they will be home for the Shower in May. If they are not. I am thinking the Shower will have to descend on the hospital. We were planning a caravan for the birth, but that didn't happen.

It was a plane that brought them to Guelph from Windsor, not a helicptor as I first indicated. Vanessa had a room at the hospital while they were there. The mother needs to be close.

Reid is over four pounds and Claire is just three ounces behind him. They will still be in Canada when the Forrester family cottage is opened at Christie Beach. Mary tells me they will have their feet dipped into Georgian Bay before they leave for America. So they will always know where they come from.

Vanessa has to go to Montreal to the American Legation for an Immigration Hearing for the three of them to enter The States. Stephen will take her and Mary will have the babies to herself. Arms filled with a soft sweet smelling bundle of baby are fulfilling nature's best purpose. Twins must be doubly satisfying.

We were a merry throng on Sunday. A number of birthdays happen around Easter. The practice is to have birthday cake, sing the Birthday Song, They Are Jolly Good Fellows and a round of three rousing Hip Hip Hoorays. No gifts are exchanged. We are each others gift.

This year Robyn again made the birthday cake. But she decided it would be a chocolate layer cake. Of course it wasn't big enough. The Masters golf tournament was on television. The songs were not sung, the cheers were not shouted and to his great disgust my son Frank did not get a piece of birthday cake.

But the ham and roast beef were done to a T and my gravy was delicious. Next time, Robyn can make the cake again but there will be a back-up just in case.

While we were together, someone else was visiting friends in Aurora and sharing memories of happy days in the Factory Theatre. Gail Kendall had acted with Frank in a play called "You Can't Take it With You" and sent her best wishes to all of us through an e-mail.

It was a very nice ending to a great day.