 Megan Jessica Tomlin, in Vancouver, at 4 years of age |
Twenty-seven years ago today, while down in Vancouver on spring break, ostensibly to attend the AGM of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (Cathy and I were living in the Interior at the time, where she worked for the Ministry of Human Resources, and I was employed as a primary school teacher), Megan Jessica Tomlin decided that she wasn’t prepared to wait til mid-April to be born, as the doctor had suggested, but chose instead the last weekend of March 1977 to announce her arrival into the world.
The picture you see of Megan, above, is the picture you would see of her today, and the picture you would have seen of her at her birth.
The soulful almost melancholy eyes (sometimes the world can be almost too much to bear) that peer right into you, providing not just a sense of her but of yourself as well; a present sense of vulnerability tempered by an unending strength that has been a part of who she has been always, even from birth; a sense of style and grace and of how to carry herself in the world; the long delicate fingers with which she plays piano, writes and conducts post-graduate university work; and an inner and external beauty that is generous and warm-hearted, aloof yet unremittingly soulful, and more meditative and gracious than words may be found to describe.
Happy birthday, Maggie Muggins. We love you.
