Eglantine

Eglantine Senior Picture

When she was born, the hospital nurses had the audacity to label her "Twin B,"  but Eglantine never bought into the idea that she was second to anyone.  Although she weighed in at 6 lbs 6 1/2 oz, she was an inch taller than her twin.

Money was scarce when Eglantine and Hermione were born.  I remember being stunned when I took them for their six week check up and the pediatrician billed me double.  Knowing that our insurance wouldn't pay for well baby visits, I ditched the pediatrician visits and began weighing the twins at the grocery store.  As I would check out at Buttreys, I would ask the checkers if they would weigh my babies on the produce scale at the register.  The checkers were all women, and they always happily agreed to weigh my twins for me.

Eglantine AKA Sweet Pea

When she could crawl, Eglantine used to roam the house in her nightgown, sucking her fingers. She reminded us of a character on a cartoon show named Mr. Magoo, so we started calling her Sweet Pea.

I will never forget how stunned I was when Eglantine was around four months old.  She and Hermione were sitting in their baby chairs on the kitchen table when Eglantine started making  sounds resembling her twin's name.  I thought I was imagining it, when my mother said, "She is trying to say Hermione!"  

There are some children with self esteem problems, but Eglantine was never one of them.  If someone was unkind to her, she felt so sorry for that person.  Obviously they had something wrong with them.   When Eglantine was around eleven years old, Wal Mart called, and she lined herself up for a photo session.   I was caught by surprise when Wal Mart called me to pick up the pictures, accompanied by a bill for $35.  My understanding was that she had won a free photo session as a prize. Similarly at age six, she received mail soliciting her to buy mail order plant books.  With the help of her sisters, she signed up.  I didn't know about it until the bill came.  

Petunia and Prudence screamed bloody murder when they saw Santa Claus.  Eglantine surprised me when at age three she insisted that I take her to the mall for a portrait with the jolly old elf.

Around eleven, Eglantine participated in a city-wide track meet five miles away.  She would have won the 200,  but she had never run on a track with lanes before.  No one had explained to her that runner must use only the lane they start out in.  She didn't let that initial frustration stop her, though.  She rocked at track.  She won medal after medal in several different sprints, although she was mainly a 400 runner.  As a Senior Eglantine tried High Jump and medaled at divisionals.  She walked away with the sixth place medal at state in an event she at participated in only a hand full of times.  I knew Eglantine was a sprinter, so I asked her why she didn't ask the coach if she could run the 200.  "Oh, " she said, "everybody wants to run that." She wouldn't ask the coach if she could run too.  In the last few meets her Senior year, the coach had Eglantine enter the 200, where she would come in second to the team's top runner.  George Harper was so disgusted that she had not been in that race since her freshman year.  "The only reason she's second, "  he told me, "is that she hasn't had any experience with the starting blocks!"  She took second in the 200 at Divisionals and earned the sixth place medal at state in the event also. At state in 2000, she took 2nd in the 400 and first in the numerous relays she ran.  Eglantine was a big part of our town's first girls state championship in track.

State Girls Track champs ride the fire engine around town.

Besides being a fine athlete, Eglantine was an A student.  She took a photography class and photographed the most interesting pictures.  She would only put up with so much boredom in school, however.  I remember her getting bored with French.  She decided not to study for the final and earned a C in the class.  She didn't care.  She just wanted to be done with that BORING class.  

Eglantine was a friend collector.  She had numerous friends in High School and college.  Some kids are mortified when other laugh at them, but Eglantine loved at good laugh.  She never thought the laugh was at her expense because only a moron would not realize how cool she was.  She's fun and always thinks of fun activities.   

Generally, Eglantine likes people.  As an adult, she organizes activities, kids, and groups so that people get together and have fun.

 I love that Eglantine is my daughter.  Seeing her strengths and abilities makes me happy.  Energy + Enthusiam + Excellence = Eglantine!

Hershey's Kiss Costume

Prom Senior Year