Birth Day presents from Grandpa

A package arrived in the mail today from Grandpa Jack (so named until he finalizes his "official" grandpa name). The card itself was gift enough, and I was in tears before I got to the second paragraph. Enclosed in the package were three special gifts, two for Margaret and one for Mom.

Margaret's first gift is the "traditional McLean girl birth day present":



Those of you close to the McLean family know that my dad made a tradition of giving each of his daughters a teddy bear on the occasion of her birth. Ubi and I are featured below:



This tradition has now officially been extended to the grandbabies. These teddy bears continued to be part of our lives as we grew up. When I first saw the Carter's snap-front newborn t-shirts for Margaret, my first thought was that I remembered dressing Ubi in those after Sylvia grew out of them. Here are the three McLean girls with their birth day bears, Ubi in aforementioned t-shirt and diaper:



For the second gift I can only quote Dad's card. As a preface, Dad was in New Mexico when Margaret was born, celebrating the Marine Corps birthday in an annual reunion with members of Charlie Company, his company from Vietnam. For more about the characters mentioned, you'll have to read his book. The card reads:

"The quilt was made by the wife of one of my Charlie Company buddies & was raffled off at our banquet last Saturday night. 11/10/2007 was also the 232nd birthday of the USMC - hence, a birthday quilt and, as so woven, a Charlie 1/4 quilt as well.

"Terry Tillery won the Raffle.

"He immediately gave the quilt to Bill Negron, the Skipper. 11/10/07 was his 71st birthday.

"He subsequently presented to me to present to Margaret on her birth day."





We are incredibly moved by the generosity and love of so many people that this gift represents. My hope is that this quilt in some small way holds a promise for the future. May Margaret grow up in a world where the men and women of the United States Marine Corps are not sent into battles such that her grandfather and godfather have seen. With every generation comes the hope for peace. As a teacher, and now a parent, I find myself increasingly reflecting on the question of what can I do to make this hope a reality. What will it take to raise even one peace maker? Can we, collectively, train an entire generation?