A New Sherlockian Is Born

By Don Hobbs

I know I might be a little late in announcing this but I wanted to make sure they didn’t take her back. On December 17, 2003 at 3:32 CST, my daughter, Kelly Hamill gave birth to my first grandchild. Madison Claire Hamill weighed a whopping 5 pound 14 ounces and stretched out to nearly 20 inches long. Just like all the other important events this year, her birth occurred while I was in California.

One of those interesting conversation topics came up during our first visit with the baby, "What are you going to be called?" Well it was decided right up front that it wasn’t going to be "Mawmaw & Pawpaw" even though there is nothing wrong with either of those titles. In fact, they were good enough for my grandparents. We also ruled out all of the variations of Grandma and Grandpa. My wife, Joyce, is the third incarnation of "Mrs. Hobbs" and not my daughter’s mother. She decided to wait and see what Kelly’s mother picked out before deciding that she should be called "Gigi". This met with immediate approval.

So now we sat around and half of the decisions were in the bag. Somewhere among the four of us a light bulb came on. I should be simply "Holmes." This was not completely original because Joyce’s oldest son, Christopher, began addressing me with a "What’s up, Holmes?" several years prior. When he went off to college a few years ago so did that specific sobriquet. It was another unanimous choice, we will be Gigi and Holmes and to me Madison will always be "The Baby."

Madison has yet to venture to our home but that time will arrive soon. She made her first trip on Christmas Eve to our family get-together at my brother’s house. I am already creating a special spot in my library for her. She will be given her own teething edition of Sherlock Holmes when she is old enough. I will make sure that the visits to Gigi and Holmes are always special for her. I understand now that old saying about spoiling grandchildren and then sending them home.

Santa was good this year and remember: Happy Collecting!!