The day he left for training camp, I decided to head to the doctor and make an appointment. I had a funny feeling that I already knew the answer. I had him do a full set of tests, blood, etc. It had been a few years since I had had a full physical done. His nurse told me that I would know the results the next day.
The next day, I telephoned the doctor at noon and the prognosis was as I had thought - I was pregnant. I was overjoyed. Billy and I had not talked about starting a family so soon, but I knew he was going to be overjoyed. I had watched him over the summer interact with children in our church. Many of the people who attended the church were young families and many were Leaf fans.
I decided that the best way to tell him was right away and over dinner. He returned every day for dinner from Barrie. I made a very romantic dinner with his favourite - roast beef. I also had dressed in a very stunning one piece burgundy dress that he always said was one of his favourites. When he came in the door, everything was ready.
"Hey, what is up?"
I just thought that a celebration was in order. We had not had a romantic dinner in ages. You were busy getting ready for training camp."
"Sounds great." He pulled me in for a quick kiss. "I am going to take a quick shower and then we can get started."
He went to take a quick shower and he put on a dark blue suit that he knew was one of my favourites.
During dinner, I decided to tell him. "Billy, there is another reason why I made this dinner. I went to the doctor yesterday and we are going to have a little Duke."
He looked at me, stunned, "There is going to be a baby in the house soon?"
"Yuppers. In early April, there will be the sounds of baby crying."
"Early April? That is when the play offs begin. "
"You are not mad, are you?"
"Of course not, I am thrilled. I want a whole house of kids."
"Billy........"
Billy got up from his chair. He came over to my side of the table, pulled my chair out from the table and helped me to my feet. He started to whisper in my ear, "You mean there is a little Duke growing inside you, Sherri?"
"You had better believe it, Daddy.":
He put his hand on my stomach and said, "Well, Sherri, we must thank God for this litle one."
Throughout my pregnancy, many combination of names kept coming up. It seemed as if every time I turned around I found new names to discuss with Billy. And everytime it seemed as if we went back to the same combination of names - Ezra William -after Billy and Esther Marie - after Billy's sister Estelle.
It never seemed to even enter our minds that the babies might be of the same sex.
Billy tried to go to as many of my doctor appointments as he could - between road trips and practices. It was exciting the first time that we heard their heartbeats and the doctor realized that there might be more than one life inside of me.
Billy was like a mother hen with me. He continued to phone me every night when he was on the road, but near the end, he would call me twice - once before he left for the rink and once after the game just before he boarded the bus for the airport.
April 1972 came before we knew it. I had had a really good pregnancy. I know of some of my girl friends who had been sick throughout their entire pregnancies. I only had a few days of morning sickness. However, near the end, the babies decided that whenver I wanted to lie down and get some rest, it was time to play basketball. They seemed to take turns keeping me up late.
I never had any problems with heartburn like other pregnant women.
When I think back on all of my pregnancies, I was pretty fortunate that they were pretty uneventful and I was pretty healthy throughout all of them.
Fortunately, the babies decided to make their grand entrance between the end of the regular season and the start of the play-offs.
It was just after 2 am when I awoke with an urgent urge to go to the bathroom. After I was finished, I began to leak water on the floor. I said, this is strange, I have already emptied my bladder. I was a little scared and nervous at the same time. I quickly went downstairs to my inlaw's apartment. Liz, who was, of course, asleep, quickly answered the door. I explained the situation to her and she put on a bathrobe and came upstairs with me. She told me, "Hey, you had better call your doctor."
So I did. All I got was the answering service. Meanwhile, Billy had awoken from the commotion and was in the front hall wondering what was going on. The doctor advised us to head to the hospital. Fortunately, we had already packed a small suitcase for me. And as Liz went back to bed for hopefully a few more hours sleep , and we got dressed, Billy and I drove across town to the Markville-Stoufville Community Hospital to await the birth of our babies.
After about 12 hours of labour, Ezra William, weighing in at 7 lbs, 12 oz decided to emerge first at 2:15 pm. He looked a lot like me with short blonde hair. Five minutes later, Esther Marie, who had short dark hair like her father, appeared and weighed in at 6 lb, 11 oz.
Billy was grinning ear to ear and praising God that they were both healthy.
Of course, the press had gotten wind of the event and 2 days later, the babies and proud parents appeared on the front page of most of the Canadian daily papers.
