Starke made frequent stops at the cabin to take care of the deer, and give them their treats, because he knew the weekend visits would not begin until after the baby was at least a few weeks old, and the winter was behind them.
The end of February, had come, and Starke was at the station, when the call came that Julie had driven Candee to the hospital, and he should come soon, and he did, he was there in minutes.
She had a birthing room, so they could be together during the entire time, Julie stayed awhile then had to leave to get back to the shop, and Starke promised to call as soon as he could with the news, Anne stopped by to cheer them on, then she to left discretely left them to this most personal business of giving birth to her first grandchild.
A beautiful baby girl was born two hours later, to a tired mother and an ecstatic father. And while Candee dozed and the baby had been taken to be checked out, he made all of his phone calls announcing the birth.
Later when she was awake and the baby was brought to her to begin the nursing process, Starke was sitting by her bedside, and a nurse came in holding a clipboard, and she asked for the hospital records, what the baby's name is to be?
As other couples do endlessly, this couple did not discuss names for the child they were expecting, they decided they wanted to meet their baby first and so when the nurse ask this important question, they both looked at the child in Candee's arms, looked to the nurse and said at the same time, without hesitation, "Marie" middle name? She asks again, they looked at each other and said "Anne" with an e. And so Marie Anne Rome! was born.
The day they took Marie home, as Candee slowly made her way up the stairs to the nursery, Starke went into the home office and booted up the computer, he had planned on sending a few e-mail's to friends out of town announcing the birth, but before he could open the e-mail, the screen went blank for a second then words appeared, as they did the day Candee made contact with him. The words were as follows.....
My assignment is over, I must say goodbye and it faded from the screen, he sat there for another minute or two allowing a wonderful feeling of absolute understanding to come to him, and he shut the computer off, and went up to join his wife and child upstairs.