1971 - 1976 Sue

Susan Meredith Heher was born on 6th July 1971 at the Alta Bates Hospital in Oakland, California. Like Doug, she was an unexpected surprise, and like Doug, the pregnancy was complicated by Jenny having pneumonia twice, once early on and again just after Sue was born.   At that time I was in the last semester finishing my Masters thesis + looking after Doug + shopping, cooking, washing and cleaning! I had a new appreciation for how mother's cope. 

The 6th July was of course our wedding anniversary (our 3rd) and we had planned a very special dinner on the Berkeley Marina. The baby sitter we had lined up for Doug  turned into a sitter while I took Jenny to hospital. 

So our original around-the-world trip for two, had morphed into a trip with three for the first half and now four for the last half. But we didn't let that phase us and Sue travelled easily, helped by the fact that all the food she needed was prepacked and ready to be served at any time!  Berkeley in the late 60s and early 70s was a very liberal town, in every sense of the word.  I recall once, when I was with Doug in one of the parks in the Berkeley Hills, a toddler crawled over to his mother, who was chatting to a friend, lifted up her blouse, drink his fill, dropped the blouse and crawled away, without a pause in the conversation!   Jenny was rather more discreet, but breastfeed wherever was necessary - in airport, on the 'plane, in a museum, or whatever. She got a few aside glances, but simply ignored them all. The 70's were liberal in Berkeley, not so much elsewhere. 

The trip home:

 There was no time to obtain a South African passport for Sue, so she had a USA one, complete with picture of her at 3 months.  Under height, they put "still growing", a sense of humour that would be sorely lacking in the current USA.  Our departure from Berkeley was memorable. It was a long and expensive taxi ride from Berkeley to San Francisco Airport, but I discovered that if booking an international flight, one could get a free helicopter ride from Berkeley to SF airport. As we staying in a motel near to the helipad before our departure, this was ideal. 

It seemed a fantastic way to leave with a last look at SF and the whole Bay area from the air. What I had not realised that this was an 'air taxi' using big twin rotor Chinooks. They put down briefly and one boarded while the rotors were still running.  Jenny had gone all the way to downtown SF a few days before to get  a very expensive hairdo for the trip. The downwash from the rotor blades blew it apart in seconds. I was not popular. 

We flew from SF to Boston to stay with Shirley & Ron Davies in Rockport for a few days then on to London for 6 weeks in the UK, then on to Kloof for Christmas.  I was not required to take any leave when I was in the USA so, in addition to the 6 weeks spent in Australia and New Zealand, I had accumulated another 3 months leave. It was a very, very generous scholarship.