My grandfather had a pretty interesting life. Born & adopted in Oregon, he grew up in Hawaii and was on Oahu on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. He flew fighter planes in the Pacific during the war, returned home, married a girl he met in class while going to school on the GI Bill, and started building a family with her. Six kids and a medical degree from Berkley later, he was back in Hawaii working as an OB/GYN.
He delivered a lot of babies in the course of his career - to more than a few families who couldn't always afford to pay. Not all of those deliveries were remarkable at the time. He eventually retired, staying in Hawaii, in the same house where he and my grandmother had raised their kids. A little over a decade ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and in 2003 he passed away, at home, surrounded by family. I remember him as a fiercely intelligent man with a wry sense of humor who looked a lot like Santa Claus with his bushy beard and fuzzy eyebrows.
And yesterday, we found out that one of the babies Dr. David A. Sinclair delivered at Kapiolani Hospital eventually became the President of the United States. That's my grandfather's signature on the "attending physician" line of the president's birth certificate.
I feel like I should have known. One of my father's friends called last night and said he'd been expecting it all along. It all fits. But we never would have known for sure if not for the circus surrounding the birth certificate. It never would have been made public. My grandfather passed away before Obama became a national political figure, so even had he remembered that one baby among so many, he couldn't tell us.
It's an interesting piece of family history. It's fun to see my grandmother quoted on the news, hear her voice on TMZ, and see my aunts and uncles interviewed all over the place, but to me this is also a chance to remember my grandpa. I think he would have been proud to have helped that baby into the world. And I think he would have had a good laugh over the fiasco caused by one little piece of paper with his signature on it.
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2 comments:
How exciting for you and yours! I'm sure your grandpa was a wonderful man. I think he passed those genes on to you.
Awwww thanks, Gwyn! Though if I ever have to deliver a presidential baby, it'll probably be some dramatic can't-make-it-to-the-hospital emergency with me hyperventilating along with the mommy-to-be. Those doc genes skipped me. ;)
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