DiVoran’s Baby Book

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Story By Dora Bowers  

DiVoran Rae Bowers-1938

Lovelock, Nevada

    On October 29, 1938, my water broke. The time was 12:15 in the morning. After becoming convinced that the moment had come, Ivan ran for the doctor. Doctor Perry brought him home in his car, then took us to the Lovelock Hospital. In those days, the hospital was just a house with several bedrooms. Dr. Perry observing the timing of my labor left me with the nurse and went back home to finish his night’s sleep. Fourteen hours of labor later, the tired father sneaked into the nursery to see the baby. It was three P. M. on Saturday and there she was, blue as your hat and not a fit sight to see. For Ivan, it was hardly love at first sight because the first sight was bad–very bad. By the next time we saw her, she looked better. She had tiny ears, a nicely shaped head, a small mouth, and blue eyes. Her hair was the same color as Mama’s and Daddy’s which was dark brown. When one of her beautiful little hands curled around my thumb I knew those hands were the things I loved best about her, although it was hard to choose.   A nurse brought her to me, but neither baby nor I knew how to go about breastfeeding. The nurse helped and finally, we managed with the aid of a breast shield. The next problem was naming her. After all, one couldn’t go through life with the name of She. The catch was that we had been prepared for her to be a he. After four days of our calling her Rae, the nurse, Mrs. Smith, came in and told us that we had to give her a full name so we could get the birth certificate. The nurses were trying to help. I asked, “How about Alice Rae? My best friend’s name was Alice, but Ivan didn’t like that name for our daughter. One of the nurses then suggested we put the letters of each name together. Ivan and Dora. When we decided on Divoran Rae Bowers, we thought we were finished but that wasn’t the end of it. The other nurse, Mrs. Romaine, suggested two capitals, one for each parent’s name. We worked it out and decided on DiVoran. As for the Rae, that came first from her father’s name, Ivan Ray, second from an another friend’s name, and third from the ray of sunshine that came through the window of the operating room when she was born. That ray meant hope to her mother after the long labor. So we have recorded the first week of DiVoran’s life. She weighed seven and three-quarter pounds when she was born. Her grandma, my mother, Mabel Bedell, had come from Canon City to be with us when we went home. She was a practical nurse and a big help. Home, at last, DiVoran was beginning to settle in, but when she fainted in my arms one day, we took her to the doctor as quick as we could. His diagnosis was that my breast milk wasn’t rich enough. I felt sad about that, but Dr. Perry ordered, Mellin’s food, lime water, and sugar of milk for her and we put her on the bottle. I thought that would work better, but still, she failed to thrive.

To Be Continued

  DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

Tags: A mother