It Was No Surprise

A Memory of Muirtown.

It was at Insh carnival where my disabled wife and I and our two month old daughter went, simply to spend a few hours from our home village of Inverurie. There were the usual sorts of entertainments such as pipe bands and the tug of war teams and other attractions of which I do not remember too much about: but there is one thing that I will never forget; some woman was to announce on the tanoy that there was going to be a beautiful baby competition; where it was asked if there were any mothers that would like to enter their babies! My wife came up to me and asked if we could enter our daughter Sarah Natasha in the competition? I told her no with a capital (N) meaning absolutely not! My wife asked me why was I so against our daughter being entered into the competition. I told her that even though I knew our daughter was beautiful, there were other mothers and fathers who would equally think the same about their babies, but in a competition there is only one winner and no runners up. I also went on to say that any mother whose babies lost the competition would be somewhat disappointed and may even feel that their babies were inferior to other babies, and that was sufficient enough for me to refuse our baby daughter entering into the contest. Anyway another announcement went on the tanoy saying that it was a final request for mothers to present their babies. My wife all upset and in tears begged me to allow our daughter to be put before a panel of judges. I gave in to her and said to her that if thats what she wanted go ahead and have her enter the competition, but don't get upset should she lose. It was I who was holding our daughter in my arms and was reluctant to pass our daughter to a panel of judges. I believe there were six or eight babies that were to be compared, and as I looked at the Judges, each of them passing along the line of babies and giving them a close examination, I noticed and heard two of the judges for the second time around pick up our daughter, and with much praise for our daughter they both agreed and then the third judge composed herself to stop tears trickling down her cheek. All of them agreed and said a unanimous verdict had been decided and that Sarah Natasha was the winner of the competition. Obviously I was very happy that our daughter was chosen as being an outright winner, where I kept calm as our daughter was handed some prize! But what about the other mothers with their babies. I saw all those mothers expressions on their faces as their faces went from a smile to a frown and also tears of sadness. One woman on seeing that her child was not winning caused her to scream in hysterics and then to run quite a few yards shaking her arms about and lowering her head as if in shame because her baby had not won! Eventually she came to some form of getting her senses back and without really looking at my wife who was now holding our daughter held out her hand to shake my wife's hand and quickly let go of her hand and stormed away. All those mothers were heartbroken but nevertheless congratulated my wife for having such a beautiful baby daughter. My message to you mothers who would want to enter your babies into a competition - either be prepared to lose and know that we all see our sons or daughters as being beautiful, but beware that its not always the same as others see your babies. I was proud of our daughter and was even more proud when she, at the age of three, was to be chosen out of more than thirty three year old's to become a child model, modeling clothes for a clothing store in Inverurie. I was to hear two old ladies that were sat in front of me saying that our daughter was a beautiful looking quine (girl) and that she bet that her mother and father were proud of her. Too true, I was proud of her; but sadly, not too long after, my wife and I parted and I have not seen her since. I don't suppose I ever will; I have a memory of her and will until the day I die. God Bless you Sarah Natasha

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