Frenzy of Joy

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T he plan was that when my sister-in-law Mindy went to the hospital to have her baby I’d go over to her house to hold down the fort. This would be her fifth; there was a lot to hold down.

So when the phone rang as soon as Shabbos was over I knew my lines. “Gut voch?” I said dropping the encrusted cholent pot back into the sink and already searching for my keys.

“I called you first!” trilled my mother-in-law. “Mindy had a boy!”

“Mazel tov!” I said gathering paraphernalia. My husband appeared at the doorway. Mindy had a boy I mouthed. “So what happened to the kids over Shabbos?” I asked my mother-in-law.