Getting eight children under the age of 12 through the day and then off to bed was to Thalia Ludlow's mind a kind of daily marathon with her relay partner and husband, Capt. R.E. Ludlow. Dinner, family time rolling into baths, rolling into bedtime stories and snuggling and tucking people in, and sometimes tucking them in again because bathroom runs and things that go bump in the night and burning questions happened by the time they got down to the end of the group.
“Is anybody keeping track of Mr. Sandman's frequent flyer miles, though?” ten-year-old Andrew wanted to know that particular day. “I mean, he ought to be flying free at this point, with all the night flights he does.”
But finally, the Ludlow grandparents had all the kids in bed, and crashed out on the sofa, a mere 8-10 hours before starting the whole thing again.
“We have to actually rest before going to bed!” Mrs. Ludlow said to Mrs. Maggie Lee her cousin by marriage. “Think about this before you and Harry have eight kids!”
“Oh, Harry and I are just focusing on getting one here!” Mrs. Lee said. “I think Harry will have some kind of fit and fall out from relief when Baby Lee and I are alive and well at the end because of what happened to his first wife and child – we're just working on one!”
Col. and Mrs. Lee were tired too, having participated in the Ludlow marathon with their Ludlow cousins, but they were younger, and only rarely did any of the little Ludlows bed down over at their house.
“Because Papa, and Grandma!” five-year-old Lil' Robert said. “I love Cousin Harry and Cousin Maggie, but it's not the same!”
So the marathon began and ended with the Ludlow grandparents, and with them sitting on the sofa exhausted in each other's arms until they felt like going to bed, most days.
“Do you know,” Capt. Ludlow said, “that it is a good thing you are so beautiful, Thalia?”
“Why today?” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“Because by this time of day I feel like some old, tired, silver-haired thing that ought to be left like some old sleeping dog to just lie wherever he stops for a few days,” he said. “On the other hand, if I can just get to bed, other things can happen!”
She started laughing.
“Now that's a man for you!” she said. “I don't even know where you even got the energy to think about it today, Robert!”
“That's about the best I can do most days,” he said, his blue eyes sparkling a little, “but a man has to keep himself motivated somehow! We gotta do all this again in a few hours, and you know the day starts with that golden-haired thing named Robert Edward Ludlow III looking for his Papa, his milk, his three drops of coffee, and whatever else he can get into if I turn my back!”
“He's so cute, snoozing on your lap after all that is done,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“And I would not start my day any other way and will miss these tender years with him in due time,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Since we are going to be exhausted, may as well get the most of it with him and the rest, while we can!”
“Agreed,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “Joyful memories, no regrets, in the days when we can do no more.”
“We shall be happy old white-haired things in that day,” Capt. Ludlow said, “in our big rocking chair for two, knowing we have done our best.”
“Yep,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
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