38 years ago, before the advent of neonatal intensive care, if you were born 2.5 months premature you got plopped in an incubator meant for full grown newborns and people hoped for the best. there wasn’t much to done except , perhaps, pray.

if memory serves scholarly articles were written on how doctors managed to save the lives of me and my mother from complications from placenta previa and premature birth.

i believe this photo was taken a few weeks after my birth. i would spend about the first 2.5 months of my life in that incubator.

i weighed about 2 pounds 13 ounces at birth and "they" said i would be a little "slow" from brain damage; a declaration which, of course, has been the source of great amusement and ribbing over the years.

32 years later, i would find myself on the other side of the incubator.