The birth of our fourth child

Talmage was born on Thursday, June 2, 1977. It was a beautiful sum­mer morning. Grandma and Grandpa Lange were visiting us from California. Grandpa had helped us build a brick-and-picket fence in front of our house in Rose Park to help keep nearly-two-year-old Rachael from wandering all over the neighbor­hood. I was at work at the Church Office Building, and Claudia had gone to her doctor for her weekly visit. He thought she would be having a baby very soon.

Sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 that morning, she called me at work to say she was beginning to feel something, she thought. She was never sure about these things. I had the car and agreed to come home at lunchtime.

A little after 11:00 she called me again to say she thought I should come home right then. I excitedly hopped in the car and hurried home in less than ten minutes. No one was there. The neigh­bor lady from across the street yelled that everyone had gone in Grandpa's car to the hospital in Bountiful. It was an exciting ride for the children as Grandpa slipped in and out of traffic trying to get to the hospital as quick as he could. Claudia was busy doing her panting exercise to try to keep something from hap­pening in the car.

When I got to Lakeview Hospital, probably not many minutes afterward, I went racing into the hospital, tearing down the hallway, when it occurred to me that I didn't have the fog­giest notion of where the delivery area was.

After helpful hospital people kindly directed me where to go, I scrubbed up and was coming into the delivery room through one door just as the doctor was entering through another. A nurse was pre­paring to deliver our baby and I guess would have done so had the doctor not arrived just in the nick.

In a special Christmas issue of the Cleverly Newsletter sent to non-family members in December, I recounted the official con­clusion of the story: "Talmage John Cleverly was born at noon on Thursday, June 2, 1977, in the Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Utah—about forty minutes after Mama decided she was in labor, about ten minutes after she arrived at the hospital, about three minutes after the doctor reached the delivery room, and about a minute and a half after Daddy arrived from work. He was a healthy 3580 grams, 52 cm long, with lots of dark hair which is now a little lighter."

Talmage was our fourth child, our second son.

When I brought Claudia and Talmage home from the hos­pital on Sunday morning, there were Michael, Rebecca, and Rachael standing in the front yard to greet us. Rachael, of course, was on the outside of the closed new fence we had just built to keep her in.

Three and a half weeks later, we took Talmage to the fast and testimony meeting in the Rose Park Fourth Ward, Salt Lake Rose Park Stake, where I gave him his name and a blessing:

"Our Heavenly Father, we take this infant child in our arms by the authority of the holy Melchizedek Priesthood to give him a name and a blessing. The name which we give to him this afternoon is Talmage John Cleverly.

"And now, Talmage, we give unto you a blessing at this time. We are grateful that you have come so recently from our Heavenly Father and that you are clean and pure and innocent as you begin this life. We are grateful for the great contributions that will lie ahead for you.

"You have been born into a noble heritage, into the house of Israel, and because of your ancestors, an eighth-generation mem­ber of the Church of Jesus Christ. And you, because of the name that you are receiving this day, also have a great heritage to give you an example to live up to. You are receiving the name of a great apostle of the Lord, who has made many contributions in many fields, perhaps the greatest his insights into the life and mission of our Savior, the Redeemer of the world. And the name John, after that apostle who was called beloved by the Savior, and after your maternal grand­father, a man with­out guile, one whom you can pattern your life after and emulate.

"We bless you that you may grow and become strong and healthy. We say to you that you will grow to receive all the blessings of the gospel, that you will be baptized and in due time receive the holy priesthood and someday have the opportunity of raising your voice as a missionary to the nations of the earth and make covenants with your Heavenly Father in sacred places and be married one day with one worthy to accompany you through­out the eternities.

"And all these things will come to pass if you are faithful and if you seek for them. And this blessing we pronounce upon you at this time in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen."