Chapter X
In the third week of June, just after midnight, there was a big rush in the Sunflower House. The lights were turned on in almost every room, one man with black curly hair and grey-eyes was running up and down the house and the telephone was used almost three times during that night. The rush ended when the sunrise appeared on the horizon, marking the beginning of a new day which would be one of the happiest days in the history of the Sunflower House.
Precisely one hour later, two cars reached the Sunflower House. Blythe Ford welcomed them with open arms and a tired yet incredibly delighted expression on his pale face.
"How is she, Blythe? Tell me truth, and the baby? Are they fine?" Faith was the first one reach her son-in-law with a worried and at the same time, radiating face.
"They are both perfectly fine." Blythe replied with a happy sigh "Everything happened so quickly, even Roxanna, Julia's friend and a midwife, was impressed herself." he said with a smile and twinkling eyes.
"My Blythe! My baby is a father now!" Rilla shouted out and threw her arms around her son's neck. Jem, Ken, Grandparents Blythe and Grandmother Rosemary quickly followed her actions and looked at him with shining faces.
"Yes, a father to a baby girl." he replied proudly and looked at the people around him who were waiting for more news with hungry eyes "Joyce Faith Ford is just as perfect as her mother is." he said and smiled when Ken put his arm on Blythe's shoulder and grinned at him with wet eyes, full of emotions.
Anne and Gilbert looked at each other in disbelief "Our Joyce would have been fifty five years old today, and you chose her name for your first daughter after her?" Anne said quietly and her lip trembled under the sudden wave of warmth which crossed her body.
Blythe nodded and kissed her cheek "Yes, she is our 'Joy' after all, isn't she?" he said to her with a grin "That was the first thing Julia said to me when I was allowed to come into the bedroom. She named her Joyce because she knew that no other name could suit her more. And I couldn't be happier." he laughed through the tears forming in his eyes.
"Can we see her?" Faith asked in a begging tone.
"Of course, come on in." Blythe answered warmly and they all came into the Sunflower House, everyone shaking with excitement and happiness.
When they entered Julia's and Blythe's bedroom, the most perfect image possible appeared in front of their faces. Julia, weak and pale but extremely delighted and relieved young mother, lay on her bed looking at the small bundle of "joy" in her arms. The small Joyce, all pink and chubby, had small red curls all over her tiny head. She had Julia's fine nose and long eyelashes and her father's grey big eyes. She also turned out to inherit her grandmother Rilla's dented lip, which gave her the charm of the old into her beauty. Joy wasn't at all tired, unlike her mother, and was happily looking and smiling at proud Julia, as she wanted to tell her how much she already loved her mother. Julia seemed to know what her daughter tried to say and was smiling and whispering something only reserved for Joy to hear.
"Oh, she is beautiful, my darling." Faith said softly when she kissed both her daughter and granddaughter with tears coming down her red cheeks.
"I know she is. And she has such perfect fingers and toes." Julia whispered back and felt how her own little tears formed in her hazel-eyes.
Jem patted Joyce's red curls tenderly "She is all perfect." he said in a moving tone.
"That's exactly how Joyce looked like." Gilbert said eventually and smiled at his granddaughter and great-granddaughter with pride.
Julia looked at him with a weak smile and squeezed his hand "And so she couldn't be any better, grandpa." she said to him tenderly.
Anne and Rosemary went nearer Julia's bed and bent over to see the small smiling face of their great-granddaughter again "I wonder what she will be like." Anne said and smiled from ear to ear when little Joy grinned at her lightly.
"Time will show." Rilla sighed happily as she put her hand in Ken's own.
"How are you feeling, my dear?" Faith asked Julia when she sat down by her, still not able to believe that her Julia was a mother now.
"More happy than the words can say." she took her daughter's tiny hand in hers "All the pain and waiting was all worth it. I don't think I have ever thought of being as happy as I am right now." she kissed Joyce's little dent lips and everyone smiled in delight. Blythe put his arm around them and kissed Julia's forehead delicately.
"Now you have to rest, my dearest." Grandmother Rosemary said with energy "Are you sure you're not sleepy?"
"Not at all." Julia replied and put her hand on her mouth quickly to cover it, as she started yawning and everyone chuckled.
"There, there, sweetheart." Blythe added and kissed his wife's nose "You really must go to sleep, you slept for only three hours today." he said while looking at his wife and daughter with loving eyes.
"You did as well!" Julia said to him and laughed.
"Yes, but I, thank Goodness, didn't deliver a baby today." he replied with a smirk and everyone laughed again.
"Alright then." Julia said with disappointment in her voice and slowly handed over her little daughter into Blythe's strong arms. Just a few moments after, when everyone quietly said their goodbyes to Julia and started coming one after the other out of the bedroom, Julia was fast asleep with an angelic smile crossing her lips.
Over the next few weeks, the Sunflower House had so many visitors its walls had never seen before.
The "midwives-clan" came along just a day after the birth of little Joyce, and cooed over her bringing Julia to the edge of her nerves. Then it was the Verattis who looked more than pleased about the looks of Joyce who day by day was becoming a real beauty. Gilly and Faye were the next ones to see the new "Ford baby" and sweet little Joy only made them more excited for their own autumn-baby.
Joyce was a real star for the first month of her life, while everyone else visited her and cooed and gasped and sang and cheered over her cot or while she was lying in Julia's or Blythe's arms. Everyone loved her the moment they laid their eyes on her and certainly everyone had to agree that Julia and Blythe were so cheerful and happy, it was really hard to remember the dark years of the war in which the two of them lost so many hopes and dreams. When the two of them were cooing over their daughter, they looked even more in love with each other than they were on their wedding day. Their lives were complete by the "angel from Heavens" as Blythe referred to his baby-girl.
"She never cries." Nancy said in surprise when she held the baby in her arms for the first time.
Nancy and Cee finished the Glen's school and were enourmously happy when Julia suggested them staying for a month in White Sands and keep her a company as Blythe would work on his poems and new poetry book he just started writing.
"Only when she's hungry." Julia replied looking over Nancy's shoulder straight onto Joyce's peaceful expression of an infant's sleep.
"Oh, Julia, she is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen!" Cee gasped when Joyce opened her grey, big eyes and giggled when she saw her mother smiling at her.
Julia took Joy in her arms and kissed her head tenderly "She really is." she replied softly "And I'm so greatful that you girls came and that you will help me with everything, you are real angels." she put her hand on Cee's rosy cheek and smoothed it gently.
"What about me, don't I help?" Patrick asked Julia with a smirk, glancing at Cee from time to time, making her grin every single time their eyes met.
Julia laughed "Of course you do, Pat." she said to him "Especially when you come here with all the cakes and pasta your father makes for us." The girls and Patrick laughed merrily and that was when Blythe came into the room; slowly, with his head bent down and his black curls flowing down on his forehead, making Julia look at him worringly.
"Blythe, darling, what happened?" she said as she stood up quickly with Joy looking at the whole scene from her mother's arms "Did the publishers reject your poetry book?"
Blythe looked up at his wife and a smile of a happy man appeared on his face "Quite contrary." he replied, almost shouting and took both of his girls into his arms.
Julia started laughing cheerfully and so did all the others in the room "Oh, Blythe! They will publish it! I told you that they would!" she said and kissed him again.
""The Violets of Yesterday and the Roses of Tomorrow" will be for sale shortly Christmas!" he announced and kissed his wife's forehead and Joy's little nose with laughing eyes.
"Another famous person in our family! How wonderful!" Nancy added and little Joyce giggled so loudly, eveyone had to follow.
Summer ended very quickly, with all the funny stories Nancy had to tell both Julia and Blythe, with Patrick making sheep's eyes at Cee while they painted together in the garden of the Sunflower House, with the Verattis and the "midwives clan" coming in for tea almost every day, and of course with Faye's and Gil's frequent visits with Faye's parents who came for holidays from England.
But most importantly, one day in August, a car arrived at Julia's house with her Grandpa Meredith and his wife Rosemary, along with Faith who were supposed to pick up Cee and Nancy and come back to Glen for the last two weeks of their holidays. Grandfather Meredith couldn't come and see his great-granddaughter the day she was born because of how weak he felt, and so he decided on coming to Julia and Blythe one day during the summer, making them a real surprise-visit.
"Well, that's a pretty little girl." he said when he held little Joyce for the first time in his arms "She has something of Faith's cheeks in her too." he grinned when Joyce showed her toothless mouth to him.
"There we go, he fell in love again!" Rosemary chuckled when she looked over her husband's shoulder. Julia, Blythe and Faith laughed in unison.
"Why didn't Dad come with you?" Julia asked her mother who sat next to her with a cup of lemonade in her hand.
"He was sent for to Four Winds, a man fell off the roof and probably broke most of his bones." she explained.
Julia's face twisted "That's sounds horrible." she said "But I still wish he could come. You know how much I love surprise visits!" she smiled at her guests.
"Hopefully all of you will visit us soon again." Blythe said, looking at Grandpa Meredith with a special, caring look in his eyes "Although I know that you, Aunt Faith, will come here more often when Julia will come back to work." he smiled at his mother-in-law.
"Yes, I will." she replied glancing at her granddaughter with smiling eyes "But you know, Julia, that I won't be able to come everyday." she said seriously to her daughter.
"I know that, Mother-dear." Julia replied with a grin "But I'm not coming back for full-time work, just part-time, five hours a day. Besides I already arranged that Faye will come and take care of Joyce when I'll be at work."
"But she will have her baby soon as well." Grandmother Rosemary said "What will you do then?"
"Mrs Veratti kindly offered her help and we won't think about not taking it." Blythe replied with a small smile "We will cope, don't worry about us." he said and winked at his wife knowingly.
"How's Luna doing?" Julia asked her mother with eyes shining from excitement "It's anytime now!"
"Luna is quite nervous, and very tired, unlike you when you were nine months pregnant." Faith winked at her daughter "She appreciated your letters and helping her to prepare everything for the delivery of a baby." she said.
"I'm glad that I was a help to her." Julia answered and clasped her hands together "I tried my best to tell her, how it all looks like from both perspectives, of a mother and a midwife." she smiled at Joy who started looking at her as if she was listening.
"Merry, however, is going completely mad." Faith continued and chuckled "He made your father go crazy, and they literally can't talk normally anymore as Merry doesn't want to talk about anything else but the baby. He is happy and extremely excited, but he is very worried and nervous, just as his wife is." she smiled lightly.
"And if you could see his face when your mother told him how Joyce looks like." Grandpa Meredith said and put his big wrinkled hand on Joy's small smooth pinky forehead "He wanted to come right away and congratulate you both." he chuckled.
"He will have the chance to do so." Julia said and took Joyce from her Granfather's arms as she started grimacing "It's time for your lunch, isn't it, you little monkey?" she chirruped to Joy and stood up from her chair.
"I see you learned the language of the mothers." Faith laughed.
"She learnt it before Joy was born." Blythe said and chuckled himself "I'm afraid I learnt it from her as well."
"I'm glad you mentioned it, Blythe Ford!" Julia giggled and came out of the room, going straight to the nursery, telling her little daughter how beautiful she was, in a language which she learnt, as her husband said, even before her daughter was born.
Three days after Nancy and Cee came back to Glen, Faye and Gilly decided on visiting the Sunflower House. Faye showed off her baby clothes which she knitted for the past week, and cooed over Joy once again, with Gilly looking over her shoulder and enjoying the view that was before him.
"I'm always afraid that I will drop her or squeeze her too tight." Faye confessed when she put Joyce back to her bassinet.
"Don't worry, you and I both know that neither will happen." Julia said to her kindly and the two of them exchanged friendly smiles.
"I really can't wait till September will start once again." Gil said "I'm beginning to get quite bored at home as neither Faye, nor you are able to dance yet." he smiled at the two women who chuckled at his words.
"I will be able to dance in a week's time, so be prepared Gilbert Ford!" Julia said and hit him playfully on the arm.
"I actually like staying at home." Blythe said and put his arm around Julia's shoulder "I needed a break and I wrote many new poems which I intend to publish soon, so I'm not bored at all. Especially with the two ladies here," he pointed at both his wife and daughter "I will never get bored." and all of them laughed joyfully.
Suddenly a telephone started ringing "I'll go." Julia said immediately and went to the 'phone lying on the desk in their living room "Hello?" she said when she picked the receiver up.
"Julia! It's Merry!" Merry's happy and excited voice filled up in the receiver.
"Merry! How are you?" she replied cheerfully and glanced at all the Fords looking at her with interest in their eyes.
"One hour ago, I became a father." he said eventually and Julia squaked, making everyone else smile "Twins, Julia! I have twins!"
"Twins? Oh how wonderful, Merry!" Julia replied with tears in her eyes "How is Luna and the babies?"
"Luna just fell asleep and I'm here in our living room, with our whole Glen-clan. She did a perfect job and although she is quite weak, she is enourmously happy." he replied and Julia could almost see how a big smile appears on his frecled face.
"And the twins?" Julia asked nervously.
"Two perfect girls." he replied gleefully "Sheba and Uta, we called them."
"I knew that you would come up with some really unusual names, Merry!" Julia laughed "You don't know how happy I am for you."
"Thank you, sister. I just hope that I will be able to visit you and your Joyce soon, with both of my babies in my arms." he chuckled and then Julia heard rustle in the reciever "I have to go now, the twins woke up." Merry said.
"Go, Merry. I'll call you tomorrow." she replied and sent him kisses which he sent back "Tell Luna that I'm proud of her."
"I will." he said "Goodbye, Jules." and he hang up.
Julia turned around to face her husband, and brother and sister-in-law "Sheba and Uta are now the part of our family." she said gladly. Everyone gasped and they all started talking about the newest 'Blythes' in their family, concluding that every baby is a real miracle which should be treasured, always.