There have been many sweet (and some downright hilarious) comments made about Becky by her family members.

Since I don’t know how to weave these little episodes into one coherent story, I decided to present them as vignettes, tasty little morsels from the first days of Becky’s life.

The best place to start is with Johnny. Many have asked what his reaction has been to Becky. He is a man of few words but astute observations.

Greta called home the night Becky was born and Johnny said, “Well, we all wanted a boy and we were all wrong. I have a baby sister.”

Johnny’s Kindergarten classmate reported to her mother, “Her name is Rebekah because Johnny told us during recess.”

Sam brought several of the kids to visit me last Sunday. We had McDonald’s sundaes (because we need to support the Ronald McDonald House, Mom) and walked around a local park. I asked how things were going at home and Johnny confessed, “Mom, we’re playing a lot of Switch.”. Switch is a Nintendo video game system, normally reserved for weekend entertainment. Sam smiled and said he couldn’t contradict Johnny’s assessment.

A friend brought a breakfast casserole one day. I called home while they were eating and Johnny said, “It’s delicious Mom! It tastes just like yours. But way better. And with far more seasoning.”

When the nurse briefly removed all of Becky’s tubes and leads, Michael texted, “Grab her and start running home. Bring her home. She wants to come home.”

Miriam, my sister-in-law, told me that during a family game of Hangman, her daughter Vivian had a fantastic word puzzle.

Josephine played piano for Becky the other day. Becky clearly enjoyed the Beethoven sonata.

My niece Ann is a Violin Performance major at NYU. She called and played for Becky yesterday. She played “The Sound of Music”, the same piece as in this video from Christmas.

My sister once told me that the greatest compliment you can give a violinist is that the playing sounds like a human voice singing. When Ann plays, it’s like hearing the voice of an angel.

Before Becky went into surgery, I was texting with Michael. I told him that it gave me comfort knowing that Becky’s Guardian Angel would be with her. Michael texted, “Of course, she’s never left Becky.”

I asked Sam how he was doing as Mr. Mom. He said he misses me when he has time to think about it. Summarizing the experience as only an engineer can, he said, “It is stretching new muscles.”

And finally, a contribution from Greta. In observing Becky’s male pattern baldness, she was reminded of the Brian Urlacher billboards near Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

There does seem to be a resemblance.