The birth of our third child

In honor of Rachael's birth more than a third of a century ago, we share this account of her arrival in 1975. Happy birthday, Rachael!

Nearly a month short of Michael's second birthday and a few weeks short of Rebecca's first birthday, our third child and second daughter was born in Provo's Utah Valley Hospital. Rachael arrived at noon on Thursday, August 7, 1975. She was a big one—7 pounds 15 ounces, almost eight pounds. She was 20 inches long.

"All is well with Claudia and the baby," I wrote the next day in my journal. "Since I returned to work today, Claudia was not ex­pecting me to visit during the afternoon visiting hours. But I took off work and surprised her. She was so happy."

On Saturday evening, August 9, we went to the Dixon family reunion in the Payson Park. Even though she wasn't there, Claudia was the talk of the reunion for having just had a baby. We'd had two since the previous year's reunion. At that reunion, Rebecca hadn't been born yet.

"Claudia and Rachael came home from the hospital today," I wrote on Sunday, August 10. Home was a little brick house on 300 West in Provo, where we occupied the main floor and rented the basement level to four single college students. "Michael Adam seemed pleased; Rebecca less so, which surprised me. I thought she'd be too little to even know what was going on. It is good to have Claudia back."

Claudia's parents were visiting from southern California, her mom to help out with the new baby. Or, more accurately, to help out with not-quite-two-year-old Michael and not-quite-one-year-old Rebecca.

On Monday I had gone to work in Salt Lake City. Late that afternoon, August 11, a brief thunder­storm hit Provo and moved north along the Wasatch Front. Claudia was sitting in our front room nursing four-day-old Rachael. Michael Adam was next to her patting the baby. Rebecca was on her way to the kitchen looking for her grandma, who was putting clothes into the dryer. That's when the lightning struck a tree overhanging our driveway, only ten feet from where Claudia was sit­ting. It sounded like a tremendous explosion. The sound was deafening. In the kitchen the dryer and stove sizzled before the power went out.

When I arrived home from work, there was evidence of shattered tree all over our driveway. For about three days, until the huge tree was completely removed, we had the most popular tree in the neighborhood.