Published: September 08, 2009 11:28 pm      

Brooklyn never looked better

One week ago today — Sept. 2 — my wife, granddaughter and I took an unscheduled but not unplanned trip to Brooklyn.

No, we did not go to the New York City borough. Frankly, since Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson left town, I have had little desire to go to Brooklyn, N.Y. My wife and I did briefly visit the borough a few years back, but that’s because we got on the wrong subway.

Instead, the three of us left Ashland early last Wednesday to see Brooklyn Grace Nichols, the newest member of the Cannon clan and our second grandchild. She had been born by Caesarian section at 6:02 that morning, a healthy, eight-pound-two-ounce girl with a full head of black hair. (I mention this only because hair is important to me, and I envy those with it.)

Like I said, the trip to Lexington that morning — where Brooklyn was born at St. Joseph East Hospital — was unscheduled, but of course, we had been anticipating it for months.

No, make that 13-plus years. Aryssa, who until last week was my only grandchild, will be 14 in November. Since her birth, we have been anticipating another grandchild, but frankly had just about given up on getting one. Neither of our two sons is married. While that doesn’t mean they can’t father children, as far as I know they have not. And since Aryssa was unplanned, Jennifer wisely waited until she had found and married the right man before giving birth a second time.

Since I knew Brooklyn would be born by C-section, I thought I would know exactly when that event was to occur. In fact, we had been told she would be born on Aug. 28, but one of her two doctors determined that the infant should remain in the womb a while longer — maybe as long as three weeks.

And there had been several false alarms with Mommy and Daddy going to the hospital thinking that she was in labor only to be sent home.

But after 5 a.m. last Wednesday, my daughter called from Lexington saying this was definitely the real thing and we needed to come to Lexington.

Daughter and son-in-law soon will be moving back to Ashland after a little more than two years in Lexington. My son-in-law is a West Virginia hillbilly — and I mean that in the most positive sense of the word — who will never be happy unless he has one foot in the Mountain State. He has accepted a good-paying job in West Virginia and they will be moving to Ashland in a few weeks.

Jennifer is elated because she will be only three blocks from our house and again enjoy the convenience of calling on Mom and Dad to help with baby-sitting and other chores. And of course, Meemaw and Peepaw are excited about again having both of our grandchildren living less than five minutes away.

In fact, Aryssa is living with us now. Because she knew she was moving to Ashland and was excited about being back with her old friends here after two years in the Lexington school system, she has been living with us since the start of school in early August.

And soon the rest of the family will be back in Ashland.

Two years ago, Lexington was the land of promise for my daughter, but it was a city that proved to look a lot better from a distance than in the midst of it.

That’s fine with me. I pined for Aryssa during the two years she lived in Lexington, and I wasn’t looking forward to having to drive more than 100 miles one way just to see my newest grandchild.

Soon both my granddaughters will be close enough to see every day. That’s just the way this grandfather wants it. This old man has no intention of being a Brooklyn dodger.

God is good. Sometimes he answers your prayers just the way you want.

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com and at (606) 326-2649.