Lib coached me through pregnancy.  Her baby boy was going through all the stages of babydom, so I got a look at what was going to happen once my baby came along.  I had only held a baby once--and that was when I was five and my mom put my new brother in my lap for a minute or two.  That's it.

I knew nothing about childbirth.  No "Birthing for Dummies," to read, and my family was1600 miles away.  Lib was all I had.  Ken would leave for work each morning, and after I did the little bit of work I had to do, I would walk to Lib's house and watch her play with her little one.  She taught me everything there was to know about babies.  She was like a mother to me.  Such a great friend.

When I went into labor, it was Lib who drove me to the hospital.  Ken was 30,000 feet in the air doing what he did each day.  Back then, once you reached the hospital, you were on your own.  Nobody could come past the lobby.  Ken couldn't be there anyway,  he was doing a job where you couldn't take time off.  Nobody held my hand.  Nobody waited in the lobby.  I was alone.

It didn't matter.  You can't really prepare someone for labor and delivery.  You have to do it by yourself--even if the room is full of people.  Nothing went as it should have, the doctor made a critical mistake, and I ended up in shock and spent 7 days in the hospital.  Come to find out, the doctor had never delivered a baby before--it was his first day on duty.  He came very close to killing me.  Two first timers in the delivery room.  Me, and him.  It wasn't a good combination.

When I finally got home,  I was so weak, I couldn't function--and the baby cried constantly.  Lib stepped in, declared it was colic and took over.  I thought it was me.  That my new daughter didn't like me.  "Some babies just cry," she said.  "She will stop in a week or two.  It's not you!"

Lib taught me how to wash diapers in the bathtub--we couldn't afford a washing machine. (No such thing as Pampers back then."  I filled the tub with soapy water and stomped like Lucy and Ethel stomping on grapes.  Slowly I learned what to do.  Eventually I became a mother.  It took time.

Lib was there to answer every question I had.  I was totally dependent on her.  I now wonder what she got out of our relationship.  I was 19, she was 29.  She just simply chose to love and help me.