Miracle Baby
By Tom Deiker

Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to me in my whole life, or Charlayne either, until that time she gave birth to a Labrador retriever. We named her April Meshell after both our mothers. That’s what we were going to name our baby anyway if it was a girl — meaning a human girl, which we still believe April Meshell is deep down inside.

Miriam — she’s our midwife, licensed and certified both, and our best friend besides — she starts in about how April Meshell’s birth is the work of the Devil. Well, I told her there wasn’t nobody going to talk to us like that in our very own house. But Miriam’s hard to stay mad at, plus she just ignores you if you are. The next day she walks in like nothing ever happened. Doesn’t even knock. Grabs her a beer and lights up one of those colored cigarettes with the silver tips she’s always got.

“It’s not that little April Meshell is possessed,” says Miriam, “or has Satan for a daddy.” By the way, that’s the closest Miriam has ever come to apologizing in all the years I’ve known her. “I’m just saying the Devil is mixed up in it somehow or other, testing your faith and Charlayne’s, too — and God is letting him because He knows you will not give in to Satan’s temptations.”

Now that’s Miriam for you, always looking for some supernatural —more like I ought to say “superstitious” — explanation. Myself, I’m more scientific. I know doctors will figure it all out someday. I’m sure of it. Everything has got to have a scientific reason, in my humble opinion.

Those first few days were hard on me and Charlayne both, I don’t mind telling you. We got to give a lot of credit to Miriam. She made us stop feeling sorry for ourselves and start in taking care of April Meshell like it was our natural God-given duty to do.

Miriam could tell the stress and strain was dragging us both down to the very depths of depression. That’s when she says we should call The Sun. “You need to tell your story to the whole world,” Miriam says. “You got to get this burden off your chest. If you’re not thinking of yourselves, well then do it for little April Meshell.”

So that’s how our story got on the cover of The Sun, August 17, 2000, which you probably remember if you get that newspaper. It’s at all the Winn Dixie checkout lines. Walgreen’s, too.

The Sun probably saved Charlayne and me both from a complete nervous breakdown. Mr. Kudlaty — he’s the man The Sun sent over to help us get April Meshell’s story across to the world — you could tell he was on your side from the get-go. Mr. Kudlaty told us we weren’t the only people in the world who had a miracle baby —
that’s what he called April Meshell, a miracle baby — in fact, miracle babies are a lot more common than most people think.