Christopher Michael Mullikin

This is a picture of Naval Hospital Naples, Italy. On Sunday July 7, 1974 at 12:20 PM Christopher Michael Mullikin, weighing 8 pounds 2 ounces, was born. He was my first child. There are no words to express the miracle one feels at the birth of their child, especially the first one. Since there was only a dispensary in Sigonella, pregnant women were sent to Naples, Italy to have their babies. They were usually sent about two weeks before their due date, but since this was my first, and because my husband was a corpsman, I went to Naples about a week before my due date. The trip started out about 6 AM when you arrived at Sigonella's dispensary to sign in to fly on the Medevac plane to Naples. While it was only about an hour's flight when using a commercial plane, the Medevac plane landed at every little airstrip along the way. About 4 PM you arrived in Naples only to board a bus that would take you the rest of the way to the hospital. At about 5 PM you arrived at the hospital where you were qickly assessed by a nurse, then assigned a room.
This is the front entrance to Naples Hospital. The man in the doorway is Tom Goforth, a friend of Mike's, who was stationed at the Hospital. Christopher was born exactly one week after my due date, and then I had to wait until it was time for the Medevac plane to go back to Sigonella. As it turned out we went back to Sigonella on the mail plane, and the only seats were slings. The crew of the plane were very sympathetic to me since I had just had a baby and allowed me to sit at the captain's table instead of on one of the slings. Mike had been able to get to Naples in time for Christopher to be born, so he was with us on the flight.

In August we had Christopher baptized. Christopher was the third generation to be christened in the dress he wore--my mother's youngest brother, Robert Wimpling, had been christened in it as had I. This is a picture of Fr. Anthony Navarria, Michael, Jackie and Jerry Ciciora and Christopher. Jackie and Jerry were the "stand-in" godparents for Christopher. His actual godparents were my best friend, Beverly Soika, and a good friend of Mike's, Thomas Frentz.
This is Mike, me, Christopher and Fr. Navarria on the altar after the christening. Fr. Navarria was an active duty chaplain, but he was actually from Sicily and lived in a small town there with his elderly mother. Often his sermons centered around actual events that included his family.
After the christening we had a small get together at our house in Belpasso. We invited the people from the dispensary. This is Beverly Schroeder, one of the nurses, holding Christopher.
Christopher managed to show off for everyone by holding his head up and looking around. He was just about a month old in these pictures. Almost from the start he slept all night.
Here he is, just watching everything going on. Almost from the start Christopher was a hit at the dispensary. There were about five wives from the dispensary that had babies within about a month's time. Even the single guys liked to play with Christopher. We didn't mind letting people hold Christopher or if he got a little sticky or smudged. Once at the dispensary one of the corpsman gave him some candy. Christopher was crawling at the time--and we were young and silly, and allowed Christopher to crawl all over the dispensary floor. This was before MRSA and VRE, but still, the floor was certainly not the cleanest place for him to crawl. When he was finished with the candy, the corpsman picked him up, undressed him and got in the shower with him. We used a linen saver for a diaper, and luckily by this time we were living on base and only about five minutes away from the dispensary.

Finally, after his big day of being christened and the hit of the party, Christopher was ready for a nap. It doesn't seem possible that in a little more than a week this little baby will be 34 years old. I can remember when I was younger being embarrassed when my mother would introduce me as "her baby" since I was the youngest in the family. Over the years Christopher and I have not always seen eye to eye, and have had different opinions on a lot of things, and Christopher is not my youngest child, but no matter how old he gets one thing will never change. He, like his sister, will always be my baby. Happy Birthday Christopher. I love you.