Baby is tightening one family's bonds

By Chris Jones

Published: August 3, 2008

NORMAN — It's been years since Le Ann Crane played hide and seek with a baby, but the 49-year old Norman mom is staying young and on the run with her daughters, 19-year old Katie, and Kylie, who celebrated her first birthday July 10.

"I think when you get older you forget to act silly,” Crane said. "Kylie makes me feel youthful. She is a true blessing for me and though she has turned my life upside down she has turned my attention to focus on what is important.”

Crane said she had been told years before that she couldn't get pregnant again, and when her doctor informed her about the pregnancy Crane had trouble believing it was true. She was a 48-year-old mother of a high school senior, a full-time single, working woman.

When she envisioned herself as a 53-year-old mommy taking her child to kindergarten, she said she cried.

"Before I found out I was pregnant, Katie was going off to college at OU, and I thought I would have my house all to myself,” Crane said.

"The sink wouldn't be full of dishes, and the refrigerator wouldn't be empty. In May of 2007, Katie graduated from high school, the baby was born in July, and OU rush took place in August.”

She didn't have a single thing for a baby, and everything from cribs to diapers and toys had changed completely. The extra bedroom was set up for Katie's friends, and it had to be turned into a nursery.

When the women in her office said they wanted to give her a baby shower she tried to get out of it. She thought she was too old, but her co-workers insisted. They were excited for her. She agreed to the baby shower a few weeks before Kylie's birth, and she said it was then that she accepted reality.

Kylie's smile and baby giggle is helping fill a place of sadness that can never be erased in Crane's life. Crane's son, Drew, who was born in 1990, died at age 7, from meningitis he and six other children contracted during participation in a summer soccer league. Drew, who had diabetes, died of complications from the meningitis.

"I look at things differently now,” Crane said. "Kylie is a true blessing. Our family is closer now, and since Kylie arrived I see my mom every day.

"This baby has rejuvenated the holidays for all of us. Kylie drew our big loose family circle into a closer smaller circle. Even Leroy our cat loves her. She is a happy baby, and we clap, and dance, and we make faces. She has taught us all how to play again.”

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