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My daughter was born at night. The new maternity ward was several floors up in the hospital, because you really want pregnant women to have to climb stairs, and very little worked properly. But the midwives and staff were wondrous.

My daughter was born, and the midwife muttered, “they’re not supposed to be able to do that,” and my new-born daughter was trying to raise her head and look around to see where she’d landed.

Not long after, it was my turn to hold her for the first time. I took her to the window. From up there, we could see all the lights of the town at night. And I held her up to the light-splashed window, and introduced her to the world, and asked it to be kind to her.