Things, to some extent, don’t have to make sense for me anymore. Loretta and I were incompatible blood-wise. I was A+ and she was O-, and if we wanted children, that was bad. Nature seemed generous, though, and it was not till our third son was born that it made itself felt.
I saw him in the nursery at North Shore Hospital, jaundiced and scrawny. “Oh God, don’t let him suffer,” I prayed. They call that a blue baby, and Dr. Degnan took charge. He changed that child’s complete blood supply four times! I went to see Loretta in her room. She was doing fine, yet she listened to my complaint about our little son. “I’m going to name him Frederick Emmanuel Von Burg, after you,” she told me. That put me in my place.
I’ll never forget Dr. Degnan’s name. That baby changed color and began to grow! He’s now 6’4″ with a wonderful wife and daughter, and he’s going to buy me new molars. If there is no providence, explain how we’d get through that one if we lived in Siberia!
Civilization 