Fifty years ago, I spent long hours outside of a Baltimore hospital, waiting for the birth of our first baby. We had wanted a baby for the first three years of our marriage, and we were overjoyed that our wishes were about to come true.
In 1961, fathers were not allowed in the birthing room, or whatever it was called then. Mothers, also, at that time, usually just asked to be knocked out and awakened when it was all over. Elizabeth's mother spent her birthing time sleeping peacefully, and I spent that time outside of the hospital, pacing nervously up and down Howard Street.
After what seemed like thousands of hours, Elizabeth Doris Vaughan was born, and our lives would never be the same. Our firstborn girl had a distinctive personality, right from her first breath. Let me list some of the characteristics of this fantastic human being:
E - EMPATHY - Elizabeth is one of the most empathetic persons probably ever known by any of us. This is why we love her so. She listens to you, and feels your stress when you are ill or depressed. It all started long ago when she gave her famous Christmas pageant line: "Oh, that poor Donkey, He should have the ride."
L - LIKEABILITY - Everybody likes her... and she likes everybody.. even those that one would normally not particularly like. Once, on a trip to New York City, Elizabeth drifted away from us and made friends with a scruffy, dirty, scabby guy kneeling on the sidewalk, drawing pictures with chalk. They were having a great time talking about their art work.
I - INTELLIGENCE - Yes, she is a genius, just like her dad. When she was very young, some of her teachers did not know how to handle her constant hyperactivity. One teacher complained very loudly about her and I went in to confront that teacher. The teacher suggested that she must be kind of dumb to be making all that movement.. all the time. I told that teacher a little white lie: "Elizabeth has had her IQ tested and it was found to be extremely high. She moves around a lot because her brain needs a lot of stimulation."
My little white lie did the trick.. it impressed that teacher so much that she treated Elizabeth like a princess for the rest of the year. She also spread the word to her fellow teachers.
Z - Catching some ZZZZZZZZZZZ's - As a baby, Elizabeth had her days and nights mixed up. When her mother and I were ready to go to sleep, she wanted to play. .... all night long!
A -ALARMING - Because of her concept of day and night, she sometimes served as our alarm clock and on one occasion she saved our lives. Her grandfather and grandmother came down from Massachusetts to see their new grandchild. Pepere was a heavy smoker and spread his cigarette ashes everywhere. One night, he fell asleep in one of our over-stuffed chairs and dropped a lit cigarette under a cushion. He did not notice it, and went upstairs to bed. The cigarette smouldered.
A couple of hours later, as smoke began to billow in the house, Elizabeth, who was awake at 2 am, as usual, smelled the smoke and cried to wake us up. We hustled the chair out of the house just as it was bursting into flame. Yes, she definitely saved all of our lives!
B - BEAUTIFUL - Yes.. just look at her. She is beautiful! She gets that from her mother, not me.
E - ENERGETIC - Elizabeth has always been in constant motion. She gave the battery company their idea for the Energizer Bunny.
T - TROUBLING - She and her sister got into a lot of trouble when they were in Westminster High School together. Plate glass was broken, bullies got beaten up, bus drivers got sweared at.. and some other stuff that she and her sister did that I kept from their mother. They always thought that they were getting away with something.. usually they were right.. but not always.
H - HORSING AROUND - Once, the High School staged a play of Shakespeare called A Mid-summer Night's Dream. A prop in the play was a gigantic horse made out of papier mache. Elizabeth brought it home and presented me with it, because she knew that I liked to save weird things. How she got it home is a mystery, because it must have weighed 200 pounds. I kept it in our barn room for many years until the paper beetles devoured all the paste and it collapsed.
OK.. put all these letters together and you get:
ELIZABETH -
The word comes originally from the Hebrew name ELISHEVA (My God is an oath).
The Greek version of that name became: ELISABETH and finally:
ELIZABETH with the most common meaning in English: GOD'S PROMISE or GIFT.
And YES, ELIZABETH has been a GIFT to the world for 50 Years!!
.................................................................................................................
