Guest Post: Darlene Foster

~ beetleypete

I am very happy to present a guest post from the lovely Darlene Foster. Blogger, and published author of the popular ‘Amanda’ series of books, Darlene is from Canada, and lives in Spain.

Babies and Blizzards
By Darlene Foster

I remember when my brother, Timothy, was born. It had been a typical cold and snowy prairie winter with blizzards creating impassable road conditions. Mom expected the third member of our family to arrive in early February. Dad was concerned that the inclement weather might stop him from getting her to the hospital sixty miles away, when the time came. So he took mom and my younger brother, Lorne to stay with our grandparents in the city well before her due date. Since I had school, I stayed with my great-aunt and great-uncle in the small town near our farm.

I was excited about this as I loved Aunt Elsie and Uncle Ed. They treated me well, Aunt Elsie was a great cook and I could walk to school with my older, and therefore much cooler, second cousins.

In their living room stood a cabinet full of amazing books. I would sit in front of it and stare at the titles. Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, A Tale of Two Cities, Robinson Crusoe and other classics. I so wanted to read those books behind the glass doors. I still remember the day when Aunt Elsie said that if I was very careful, I could read one of the books. Believe me, I was extremely careful. Eventually over the years I read every one of those books in that cabinet.

The baby took longer to come than mom thought but finally, on February 10th, she delivered a chubby little boy. Dad drove into the city to see her and reported back that mommy and baby were doing great. She even wrote me a letter and sent it back with dad. Apparently, my other brother was being spoiled by grandma and grandpa. We expected mom, my brother and the new baby to be home in a week.

But, as luck would have it, the day she was released from the hospital, another terrible blizzard blew up and the road to the city was closed to traffic. Grandpa picked mom and baby Timmy up from the hospital and took them back to their place. I was disappointed because Lorne got to see the new baby before I did.

The weather stayed nasty for another week and vehicles were not getting through. Mom had been gone for a month now and I missed her, even though I enjoyed staying in town with my aunt, uncle and cousins. In the city, Mom grew homesick, missing me and dad.

When I returned from school one cold but sunny day, Aunt Elsie told me to keep my coat on and watch for a surprise. Not much later, an old fashioned, covered sleigh pulled by two large draft horses plodded down the road through the glistening snow.

Dad shouted, “Whoa!” The horses stopped in front of my aunt and uncle’s house. Dad let go of the reins, jumped down from the seat in front and with a wide grin, opened the door to the sleigh. Inside sat my mother in a hooded red woollen coat trimmed in rabbit fur, smiling from ear to ear. In her arms, she held a baby bundled up in many blankets.
“In you get,” said dad. “We’re all going home.”

Dad had borrowed the sleigh from a neighbour in order to get his wife back home.

It was a magical moment for a little girl to see her mom and baby brother delivered in a horse-drawn sleigh. Straight from a storybook. It’s one of my fondest memories.

To connect with Darlene and to find out more about her life and her books, please follow these links.

Website: http://www.darlenefoster.ca

Blog: https://darlenefoster.wordpress.com/

Twitter: Darlene Foster (@supermegawoman) / Twitter

Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Darlene-Foster/e/B003XGQPHA/

Goodreads: Darlene Foster (Author of Amanda in Arabia) | Goodreads

78 thoughts on “Guest Post: Darlene Foster”

  13. Certainly more dramatic than my baby brother’s arrival, I love the image of the sleigh! I was sent to stay with my aunt and uncle. I had been asked if I would like a baby brother or sister to play with. When Mum and Dad arrived to pick me up from aunt and uncle’s I was most disappointed to see a tiny thing in a wicker basket, how on earth was I supposed to play with him!

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  25. It would be quite a treat to see family members in a one-horse open sleigh dashing o’er the fields through the snow, with bells on the horse’s bob-tail ringing. That would make everyone’s spirits bright. Oh, what fun it would be to get in and ride, and maybe even sing a sleighing song in that one-horse open sleigh! (Someone should write a song about that!)

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    2. I love how you used my story to incorporate the song! Although this was a covered sleigh with two horses, we did often go for rides in a one horse open sleigh at Christmas time. (and sang the song as we went along!) Good times!

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