Together, they gazed in wonder at their sleeping daughter, taking in the perfection of her long black eyelashes, her cute little button nose, and her pale pink rose bud lips.
"She will need a name, you know," Anton said at last.
Patty wrinkled her brows, thinking. "Antonia?"
Anton smiled. "That would be nice, but I am partial to the name Anna Patricia, if that is all right with you."
"Do you really want to name her after me?"
"I cannot think of anyone else I would rather name her after. I will call our friends and family and let them know."
Their first visitors were Ike and Sharon, who arrived that afternoon. Patty was resting when Anton gently shook her and told her they had visitors.
"Did you see her?" Patty asked her stepfather and sister.
"She's beautiful!" Ike was grinning ear to ear. "I can't wait for Beth to meet her!" Beth was Aimee's two-year-old daughter.
"And I can't wait to tell Rhoda I'm an aunt now!" added Sharon. Rhoda was her best friend at school.
Patty swallowed a lump in her throat. "Couldn't Mama come?"
Ike's smile disappeared. "She said she had a headache."
Anton squeezed his wife's hand.
Elizabeth and Paul came to visit later.
"How was the Easter service?" Patty asked them. "I'm sorry I missed it."
"It was beautiful," said Elizabeth. She laughed. "Babies come when they're ready to. You can always go to the Easter service next year."
"I can't think of a better reason to miss church," Paul remarked. Everyone laughed.
Anna was a week old when she and her mother came home from the hospital. By then, Patty had learned how to feed her new daughter, change her diaper, give her a bath, and dress her.
For the first few days, Patty was overwhelmed. Anton had to go back to work at the hospital, so she was left alone to mix formula and sterilize bottles, and wash and hang out to dry little outfits and diaper after diaper. Sometimes it rained, and she had to dash outside to bring the diapers and clothes in before they got wet.
Sharon and Rhoda came by to help sometimes, but Patty didn't want to spoil their teenage summer fun. Elizabeth came by sometimes too, bringing Max and Laura and staying a couple of hours.
One day in July, Anton arrived home with an announcement.
"I have just heard from my parents," he told his wife. "They want to come to visit for a couple of weeks, if it is all right with you."
"Of course it is," said Patty. "Do you think they will be comfortable in our guest bedroom?"
"They would be, but Hannah is coming with them. They will stay at the inn."
"I wish we had enough room for them all," said Patty.
Anton hugged her and kissed her cheek. "Please do not feel bad. My father can easily afford the inn."
On the day the Reikers arrived, Anton went to pick them up. Patty had just fed Anna and put her down for her afternoon nap. She wore her nicest dress and brushed her hair until it shone. She brushed her hair and put a breath mint in her mouth, just in case she needed it.
She heard the sound of the key turning in the lock and jumped ten feet in the air. Breathless, she watched as her guests entered. Hannah was tall and slender, with blonde hair the same shade as her brother's. Deborah Reiker was short and plump, with short, curly dark brown hair. Erickson Reiker was tall and slender, with his short, salt-and-pepper hair parted on the left.
Deborah smiled at Patty as soon as she saw her.
"It's so lovely to meet you, dear." She embraced her daughter-in-law, and all Patty's anxiety melted away. Hannah hugged her next, and then Erickson shook her hand.
"Is the baby asleep?" asked Deborah. "We shan't disturb her if she is."
"She'll wake up in a little bit," said Patty. "I made lemonade this morning. Would you like some?"
"That will be good, thank you," said Deborah.
Anton sat on the sofa with his parents and sister while Patty brought glasses of ice cold lemonade for all of them. They thanked her, and she sat in a chair with her own glass.
"Your house looks very nice," said Deborah.
"Thanks," said Patty.
"Patty has been hard at work for the past few days, getting everything just right," said Anton.
"This seems a quaint, old-fashioned town," Erickson remarked. "How long have you lived here, Patricia?"
"Since I was sixteen and Mama married Ike," Patty told him.
"Is your stepfather kind?" asked Deborah.
"Yes, he's very kind." Much kinder than my own father was, Patty wanted to add.
"Your mother must be simply mad about her new granddaughter!" said Deborah.
"She's never met her," Patty told her stepmother.
Erickson and Deborah gaped at each other in open-mouthed shock.
"But why ever not, if she lives right here in town?" asked Deborah.
"Mrs. Godsey is very busy running the store and does not get around much," said Anton.
"Still, her own grandchild..."
As if on cue, Anna began to wail. Grateful for the interruption, Patty went to the nursery to fetch her. She changed her diaper and brought her into the living room to meet her grandparents.
Deborah beamed as Patty laid the infant in her arms.
"Oh, you are so precious!" she whispered.
Patty went to the kitchen to heat the formula. She tested a drop on her wrist just like Elizabeth had shown her and then took the bottle into the living room.
"Would you like to feed her?" she asked Deborah.
"May I?" Deborah took the bottle from her and began to feed Anna. Anna drank a couple of ounces, and then her grandmother burped her.
"How well I remember doing this with Anton and Hannah!" Deborah remarked.
Later, she and Erickson took everyone out to a nice restaurant for dinner.