I should mention that Mehdi wasn’t completely gone from our lives. He was staying with some distant cousins in Tehran, but it was a tense situation. They weren’t from the wealthy side of the family, and he wasn’t able to find a job. The Iranian economy was a shambles, unemployment was high, and any chances he had of getting a job were ruined because wherever he applied, the Revolutionary Guards told the potential employer of Mehdi’s legal problems back in the US. No one wanted to hire someone with a criminal background or anyone who was on the wrong side of the government. He called Yasmin every week and he cried to her about his situation, the family was threatening to throw him out if he didn’t pay them, etc. Yasmin would have gladly sent him money, but the situation between the US and Iran made that extremely difficult. You had to get special permission from the US Treasury Dept. to send money to Iran, a process that could take months, and then few American banks were willing to do any business with an Iranian bank. The solution was to send the money to France, where the Attar family still had connections, and then to send the money on to Tehran. It was complicated, difficult and however much money Yasmin sent, Mehdi said the family wanted more. She could only legally send a few thousand every few months. The situation was deeply upsetting for Yasmin and Darejani.
September 16th, a Saturday, Yasmin and my mother threw Dar a baby shower, with about 25 women at Yasmin and Jack’s house. He got out of there, spent the day with my dad watching football, while I studied at home. I was taking the LSAT the following Saturday and was cramming every minute I could.
September 23 I took the LSAT and Dar and I celebrated that night by going out to a very nice dinner with some friends at Peter Lugar’s in Great Neck. Poor Dar was eight months pregnant by then and huge. At the house, getting ready, I could see how uncomfortable she was, and I asked her if she wanted to cancel. Our friends would understand under the circumstances. “No chance, Mickey” she stated firmly. “You’ve been working so hard and I know you did very well on the test. We are going out and having fun with our friends. Besides, I’m starving!” She smiled with that glowing expression she always seemed to have.
“You’re always starving” I teased her.
“Don’t remind me! I don’t know how I’ll lose all this weight after she’s born!” I hugged her from behind while she stood at the mirror, finishing her makeup.
“I love you just the way you are, my darling. You’re gorgeous whether you’re thin or very pregnant or whatever happens after.” I nibbled on her shoulder and she giggled as she pulled away from my grasp.
“Not now, Bunny! You can attack me later!” Dar smiled and turned around to kiss me. “Although I am horny enough to attack YOU right now. But dinner first. Lust later!”
There were ten of us at dinner. My friend Gavin and his finance Dianne, Eric and Carrie, Dar’s cousin Mahtab and her husband Reza, and her friend Doreen and her boyfriend Angelo. We were a little bit loud (four bottles of wine split between nine people), but we were hardly a problem for the other diner’s. We ate well, Dar went to the bathroom twice as our daughter kept kicking her bladder, and we just had a fun, relaxing evening. Her due date was October 12, so this was probably our last big night out for the foreseeable future. After dessert and coffee/tea, we were all sober enough to drive home, and Dar and I had a quiet ride back to Malba. Quiet, but with a little teasing, as I kept resting my hand on her knee and creeping it up her bare leg. Dar chuckled as she brushed my hand away. “Wait until we get home, you naughty man. Behave until then!”
“Where’s the fun in that? I’m feeling like I want to molest you for a few hours, even with a full belly.”
“And I intend to let you, Bunny. I even think- OWWWW!” Dar cried out in unmistakable pain and I looked over at her quickly. Her expression changed from smiling playfulness to extreme discomfort as she held her belly.
“Dar? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, Mickey! I think I had a contraction. But I’m not due for 3 weeks yet!”
“Should I head to the hospital instead of home? We’re only fifteen minutes away from here.”
Neither of us knew what to do. It was likely false labor but we were so close to our hospital where Dr. Vargas was on staff. I drove a little longer in the general direction of home when she cried out again and that made my decision easy. I headed to the hospital, without any argument from Dar. She didn’t want to take any chances either.
I pulled up to the ER and got someone to wheel her inside while I went to park the car, then I hurried inside to stay with Dar after giving our insurance information. I sat with her while she was attached to a fetal heart monitor and we tried to relax. Then I realized I needed to call our parents before it got late. I excused myself for five minutes, called my parents and they said they’d call Yasmin.
I hurried back in and Dar was both smiling and showing a little concern. “Mickey, baby, my water broke! I’m really having our baby!”
My heart was pounding and I hugged Dar as tight as I dared. “Darling, I can’t believe it! It’s actually happening! Oh, our parents are all on the way over. I’m glad I didn’t make them come for nothing.” We smiled and laughed a little, but mostly because of how excited we were. Then a nurse came over and told us they were taking Dar up to the maternity department, but it was going to be quite a while yet so I waited for our parents in the lobby while Dar went upstairs. After I gave her a big kiss, of course.
My parents lived closer and they arrived first, then fifteen minutes later Yasmin and Jack arrived, all excited, nervous, thrilled. We went up to maternity but only I could go in to be with her, after washing up thoroughly and getting into surgical scrubs. When I went into her room, Dar was sweating and moaning. “Mickey, where were you? I was getting worried!”
“Worried about what? You thought I was going to run away or something?” I said as I held her hand in mine and wiped her brow with a small towel. “That’s kind of silly, you know. I had to wait for our parents. They’re all in the waiting area. Probably going to be there for a while.”
“I don’t know about that, Bunny. The nurse said I’m already dilated 6 centimeters. And my contractions are only about 7 minutes apart.”
“Good, then you won’t have to suffer through all those hours of labor. I can’t wait to meet our little girl!” Dar moaned in pain, but she held my hand and I could feel the love much more than the pain.
I kept coaching her through her breathing as we learned in our Lamaze classes. Dr. Vargas was there, looking after Darejani and another woman whose doctor couldn’t get there in time. About three hours later, Dr. Vargas examined Dar again and said, with a big smile of her own, “It’s time, Mr. and Mrs. Gold. You’re fully dilated.” She sat on a stool and put Dar’s legs in the stirrups and, after some tough pushes, lots of breathing, and more than a little of Dar’s nails digging into my hand, our little girl, Lisa Nasrin (Wild Rose) Gold came into the world at 4:48AM on Sunday, September 24, 1989. 6 pounds, 10 ounces. Ten fingers and toes, beautiful and perfect. Perfect. I carried her to Dar and we cried and we laughed, and we laughed and we cried as our little Lisa did her own crying fit. She had a real set of lungs on her already.