My Children,
Baby Emma
was born to Judge Wayne and Mrs. Laurel Cobb when your daddy was a teenager.
Totally captivated by this wee beauty, Bill made a visit to Emma’s home when
she was but two days old. He brought with him an elegant gift: a single rose in
a glass bud vase.
“Bill placed
that rose in the corner of her crib with such tenderness,” Laurel Cobb recalled
years later. “It was one of the most manly acts I’ve ever seen.”
In the
months that followed, Bill made many visits to the Cobb household. “He was so
taken by Emma, Bill would just stand there a watch her sleep. He even offered
to babysit her for free!” Laurel marveled.
Bill loved
roses… and children. When I met him in the mountains of NC in 1980, Bill was a
Jackson Perkins volunteer test grower who painstakingly tended trial specimens
and submitted the results. We enjoyed many a fragrant bouquet from his garden. Years
later, when we suffered a number of miscarriages among the beautiful, healthy
babies the LORD gave us, Bill and I embraced the healing process by creating a
rose garden. We planted a specially chosen rosebush for each of our living
children and then one for every baby we had lost.
I had the
privilege of seeing Laurel Cobb again in the summer of 2013 at the funeral of
Bill’s ninety-eight year-old mother. After the service, Laurel shared the story
of Emma’s rose with our youngest son, Ethan.
“You remind me so much of your father,” she said with joyful animation. “I’m going straight home to find that vase so
I can send it to you. I’ve saved it all these years!”
“Whatever
became of Baby Emma?” I asked with a smile.
“She became
a Christian homeschooling mother of six, just like you,” Laurel said, with a
hug.
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