In honor of Camilla's 28th birthday, we share this account of her birth those nearly three decades ago. Happy birthday, Camilla.
On Wednesday, January 7, 1981, I wrote in my journal, "Claudia finished reading Camilla, the biography of Sister Kimball, which we received as a Christmas gift. I finished the book during the holidays while I was sick. If our new baby is a girl, we will probably name her Camilla."
We had actually made that decision a month earlier. During December Claudia and I had been at the Missionary Department Christmas dinner on the 26th Floor of the Church Office Building. President Spencer W. Kimball and his wife Camilla also attended, and we sat at the same table with them. Claudia was expecting our sixth child. She was about three months along, and we decided that evening if our baby was a boy we would name him Spencer and if a girl we would name her Camilla.
It would be another six months before we knew which one was coming.
Monday, June 15, 1981, was Claudia's parents' 32nd wedding anniversary. It was also three days after the due date of our sixth child. Early that day, about 3:30 in the morning, Claudia woke me up to say she was going to have a baby. Her contractions had started about 2:45, so she got up, washed two loads of clothes, showered, and washed her hair so she'd be ready to go to the hospital. We arrived there about 5:00, and Dr. Lewis delivered our sixth child and fourth daughter at 5:37. She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long—our biggest baby thus far.
Dr. Lewis, who was leaving at 7:00 for a fishing trip in Alaska, said it was fortunate the delivery was fast. The baby was posterior, which made the very end of labor harder for Claudia. Also, because of the little one's position, the cord was pinched every time Claudia had a contraction. When Camilla was born, she was all purple and initially had a hard time getting her breathing started. Claudia was put on an IV before delivery but still bled heavily afterward. We were grateful for the blessings of modern medicine which the Lord has provided.
Claudia and Camilla were in the hospital until Thursday morning, June 18. I went to visit her early each morning, and the rest of the family came to see her and the baby each afternoon and evening. On one of those visits, six-year-old Rebecca gave Claudia a note:
I love you Mom. And Camilla. I like both of you. I think both of you are sweet. Here is a poem:
I like
Being in the hospital
With a babby.
The end.
Grandma and Grandpa Lange were in town visiting from California when Camilla was born. Grandpa and I were putting a new roof on our house.
The morning Camilla came home from Lakeview Hospital, all of the children were quite excited. We had a birthday party with gifts for each of the children: a soccer ball for Michael, roller skates for Rebecca, a dump truck for Talmage, and a doll for Anna.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
Oh, what songs of the heart
This morning in our staff devotional I was assigned to give the spiritual thought. We sang the hymn "Oh, What Songs of the Heart" (Hymns [1985], no. 286), which was written by Joseph L. Townsend (1849–1942). I then gave a brief history of Brother Townsend's life, his conversion to the Church, a remarkable vision of the Savior he had after joining the Church, and quoted briefly from the nine other well-known hymns he wrote that are in our current hymnal:
"The Day Dawn Is Breaking" (52)
"Nearer, Dear Savior, to Thee (99)
"Reverently and Meekly Now" (185)
"Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words" (232)
"Choose the Right" (239)
"O Thou Rock of Our Salvation" (258)
"Hope of Israel" (259)
"Oh, Holy Words of Truth and Love" (271)
"The Iron Rod" (274)
And, of course, "Oh, What Songs of the Heart," which I want sung at my funeral. This is probably the least known of the ten hymns. I asked by a show of hands how many in our department devotional had known of the hymn before today, and fewer than half the hands went up. It is an upbeat, comforting testimony of what happens after we die:
Oh, what songs of the heart
We shall sing all the day,
When again we assemble at home,
When we meet ne'er to part
With the blest o'er the way,
There no more from our loved ones to roam!
When we meet ne'er to part,
Oh, what songs of the heart
We shall sing in our beautiful home.
Tho our rapture and bliss
There's no song can express,
We will shout, we will sing o'er and o'er,
As we greet with a kiss,
And with joy we carress
All our loved ones that passed on before;
As we greet with a kiss,
In our rapture and bliss,
All our loved ones that passed on before.
Oh, the visions we'll see
In that home of the blest,
There's no word, there's no thought can impart,
But our rapture will be
All the soul can attest,
In the heavenly songs of the heart;
But our rapture will be
In the vision we'll see
Best expressed in the songs of the heart.
Oh, what songs we'll employ!
Oh, what welcome we'll hear!
While our transports of love are complete,
As the heart swells with joy
In embraces most dear
When our heavenly parents we meet!
As the heart swells with joy,
Oh, what songs we'll employ,
When our heavenly parents we meet.
The hymn and the thought were timely. Just after our devotional we learned that the nineteen-year-old daughter of one of our coworkers had been killed earlier this morning in a car accident near Sugar City, Idaho. She was a student at BYU-Idaho.
"The Day Dawn Is Breaking" (52)
"Nearer, Dear Savior, to Thee (99)
"Reverently and Meekly Now" (185)
"Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words" (232)
"Choose the Right" (239)
"O Thou Rock of Our Salvation" (258)
"Hope of Israel" (259)
"Oh, Holy Words of Truth and Love" (271)
"The Iron Rod" (274)
And, of course, "Oh, What Songs of the Heart," which I want sung at my funeral. This is probably the least known of the ten hymns. I asked by a show of hands how many in our department devotional had known of the hymn before today, and fewer than half the hands went up. It is an upbeat, comforting testimony of what happens after we die:
Oh, what songs of the heart
We shall sing all the day,
When again we assemble at home,
When we meet ne'er to part
With the blest o'er the way,
There no more from our loved ones to roam!
When we meet ne'er to part,
Oh, what songs of the heart
We shall sing in our beautiful home.
Tho our rapture and bliss
There's no song can express,
We will shout, we will sing o'er and o'er,
As we greet with a kiss,
And with joy we carress
All our loved ones that passed on before;
As we greet with a kiss,
In our rapture and bliss,
All our loved ones that passed on before.
Oh, the visions we'll see
In that home of the blest,
There's no word, there's no thought can impart,
But our rapture will be
All the soul can attest,
In the heavenly songs of the heart;
But our rapture will be
In the vision we'll see
Best expressed in the songs of the heart.
Oh, what songs we'll employ!
Oh, what welcome we'll hear!
While our transports of love are complete,
As the heart swells with joy
In embraces most dear
When our heavenly parents we meet!
As the heart swells with joy,
Oh, what songs we'll employ,
When our heavenly parents we meet.
The hymn and the thought were timely. Just after our devotional we learned that the nineteen-year-old daughter of one of our coworkers had been killed earlier this morning in a car accident near Sugar City, Idaho. She was a student at BYU-Idaho.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
The birth of our fourth child
In honor of Talmage's 32nd birthday, we share this account of his birth those three decades ago. Happy birthday, Talmage.
Talmage was born on Thursday, June 2, 1977. It was a beautiful summer morning. Grandma and Grandpa Lange were visiting us from California. Grandpa had helped us build a brick-and-picket fence in front of our house in Rose Park to help keep nearly-two-year-old Rachael from wandering all over the neighborhood.
I was at work at the Church Office Building, and Claudia had gone to her doctor for her weekly visit. He thought she would be having a baby very soon.
Sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 that morning, she called me at work to say she was beginning to feel something, she thought. She was never sure about these things. I had the car and agreed to come home at lunchtime.
A little after 11:00 she called me again to say she thought I should come home right then. I excitedly hopped in the car and hurried home in less than ten minutes. No one was there.
The neighbor lady from across the street yelled that everyone had gone in Grandpa's car to the hospital in Bountiful. It was an exciting ride for the children as Grandpa slipped in and out of traffic trying to get to the hospital as quick as he could. Claudia was busy doing her panting exercise to try to keep something from happening in the car.
When I got to Lakeview Hospital, probably not many minutes afterward, I went racing into the hospital, tearing down the hallway, when it occurred to me that I didn't have the foggiest notion of where the delivery area was.
After helpful hospital people kindly directed me where to go, I scrubbed up and was coming into the delivery room through one door just as the doctor was entering through another. A nurse was preparing to deliver our baby and I guess would have done so had the doctor not arrived just in the nick.
In a special Christmas issue of the Cleverly Newsletter sent to non-family members in December, I recounted the official conclusion of the story:
"Talmage John Cleverly was born at noon on Thursday, June 2, 1977, in the Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Utah—about forty minutes after Mama decided she was in labor, about ten minutes after she arrived at the hospital, about three minutes after the doctor reached the delivery room, and about a minute and a half after Daddy arrived from work. He was a healthy 3580 grams, 52 cm long, with lots of dark hair which is now a little lighter."
Talmage was our fourth child, our second son.
When I brought Claudia and Talmage home from the hospital on Sunday morning, there were Michael, Rebecca, and Rachael standing in the front yard to greet us. Rachael, of course, was on the outside of the closed new fence we had just built to keep her in.
Talmage was born on Thursday, June 2, 1977. It was a beautiful summer morning. Grandma and Grandpa Lange were visiting us from California. Grandpa had helped us build a brick-and-picket fence in front of our house in Rose Park to help keep nearly-two-year-old Rachael from wandering all over the neighborhood.
I was at work at the Church Office Building, and Claudia had gone to her doctor for her weekly visit. He thought she would be having a baby very soon.
Sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 that morning, she called me at work to say she was beginning to feel something, she thought. She was never sure about these things. I had the car and agreed to come home at lunchtime.
A little after 11:00 she called me again to say she thought I should come home right then. I excitedly hopped in the car and hurried home in less than ten minutes. No one was there.
The neighbor lady from across the street yelled that everyone had gone in Grandpa's car to the hospital in Bountiful. It was an exciting ride for the children as Grandpa slipped in and out of traffic trying to get to the hospital as quick as he could. Claudia was busy doing her panting exercise to try to keep something from happening in the car.
When I got to Lakeview Hospital, probably not many minutes afterward, I went racing into the hospital, tearing down the hallway, when it occurred to me that I didn't have the foggiest notion of where the delivery area was.
After helpful hospital people kindly directed me where to go, I scrubbed up and was coming into the delivery room through one door just as the doctor was entering through another. A nurse was preparing to deliver our baby and I guess would have done so had the doctor not arrived just in the nick.
In a special Christmas issue of the Cleverly Newsletter sent to non-family members in December, I recounted the official conclusion of the story:
"Talmage John Cleverly was born at noon on Thursday, June 2, 1977, in the Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Utah—about forty minutes after Mama decided she was in labor, about ten minutes after she arrived at the hospital, about three minutes after the doctor reached the delivery room, and about a minute and a half after Daddy arrived from work. He was a healthy 3580 grams, 52 cm long, with lots of dark hair which is now a little lighter."
Talmage was our fourth child, our second son.
When I brought Claudia and Talmage home from the hospital on Sunday morning, there were Michael, Rebecca, and Rachael standing in the front yard to greet us. Rachael, of course, was on the outside of the closed new fence we had just built to keep her in.
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