Approximate dates: May1978/summer 1991/Spring 1992
Main characters: David, Coco, Laura and Sophie
Introduction. Coco and I were married in 1978 when I was midway through a cruise on the USS South Carolina to the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The wedding was in Gibraltar. We traveled from there to Spain, then along the Rivera and spent most of our time in Italy eventually rendezvousing with my ship 17 days later in Venice. One of our favorite places was Pisa. The heart of Pisa is the Piazza dei Miracoli (Plaza of Miracles) which includes the magnificent Pisa Cathedral. We toured the Cathedral and as we were leaving, Coco and I went over to the table in the narthex with the votive prayer candles and lit a candle for each of the children we hoped to have one day. We lit three candles and I put the appropriate donation in the money box and then headed out the door. For some reason, I had a sense that I should stop and turn around. I went back and lit a fourth candle.
Fast forward 13 years. We have three young children, and I was undergoing a lot of challenges in my business. Additionally, I am bipolar and at that time, we had not figured out the right meds to treat it. Coco came to me and told me that she was going to have a fourth child. She was concerned that this was going to really freak me out considering the pressures we were under. We had carefully planned the other children. This one was totally unexpected to the point of we may have had grounds for medical malpractice. I told Coco it was great news and I meant it.
The following are two excerpts from the dictations Coco and I made in 1992 that relate to Sophie, the Fourth Candle:
Story One.
For some reason, Coco and I both had a fear that since this fourth child was not planned that it was going to be a testing time and we were going to have a child with some birth defect. At supper one night, we revealed to the three children that Coco was pregnant, and we were going to have another child. We all prayed together that this next child would be a healthy child. Laura (age 8) senses things and I think she realized that we were genuinely concerned about this. Every night from then on until Sophie was born, without missing one night, Laura either prayed it herself or she made sure that we prayed, “Dear God, please let Mama have a healthy baby.” Well Sophie was about as healthy a baby as there ever was. And after she was born Laura said thank you God for giving Mama and Daddy a healthy baby. She didn’t forget where Sophie came from.
Story Two.
We have told stories so far about Rob and Laura and Katherine, but we don’t have anything about Sophie. Which is of course understandable since Sophie is not even one year old yet. But she deserves at least one story. Sophie is unique among all the children in many ways. For one, she is the only child that consistently seems to like her father more than her mother given a choice as to which one is to hold her. To the point that when almost anytime Coco comes around carrying Sophie and I’m nearby she wants to fly out of Coco’s arms and jump into mine. I guess there are some changes that have taken place that sort of account for this, because with our previous children I’ve always been so overly concerned about work or money or this or that. I just haven’t taken the time to sit down and simply enjoy them as little people. When they got older, walking, and talking and all that kind of stuff, they were so fascinating I would stop. But with Sophie things have been more stable and I have really been able to appreciate our fourth and last child. And she is such a beautiful child, and she has such a good humor, that really any time I am in a room with her I cannot resist just going over and picking her up and holding her and squeezing her and playing with her. I get back in spades her affection. It is a very special thing to me. Coco’s excuse as to why she likes me more than her is because Coco makes her ride around in the car, locked in a car seat which she despises doing whereas I rarely ever do that. So that’s Coco’s explanation as to why Sophie likes me better than her. That’s fine, we’ll leave it at that.