She’s 16, She’s Beautiful, And She’s Mine
Ok, so I’ve taken a bit of license with Ringo Starr’s 1973 hit, You’re Sixteen. But, you’ll soon see why.
I’m calling this a TOHO update. This Only Happens Once. Almost like the YOLO that’s been popularized recently by the Wall Street Bets crowd (YOLO meaning, You Only Live Once).
There’s no market commentary, and not even a joke. Those will be back in two weeks. Simply put, this is a brief tribute to our daughter, Caroline Faith Kargenian, who will be 16 this Sunday, on Valentine’s Day. See below for the story. It’s pretty cool.
The Spring of 2004
To fully appreciate the story, a little background is necessary. Our son, Adam, was born in 1994. Four years later, my wife, Michelle, had a miscarriage. At that point, she was 38, and as many couples can attest, having a baby at that age or older isn’t necessarily just as simple as having sex. At age 40, we decided to go down the route of invitro fertilization, having decided that if it failed, at least we had tried. My wife will attest to this—I nearly passed out watching the video of how to administer the daily shots to her, which went on for 30 days if I recall. I was like, “I need to put that needle (it was long!) into your bum?” Yikes. I definitely struggled at first, until one day Michelle said, “Think of it like you’re throwing a dart at the dartboard.” Ha. Now she was speaking my sports language! That helped me become more proficient, and we ended up going through two rounds of fertility treatments, with no success.
Having a second child at that point became more like, out of sight, out of mind. We were still certainly blessed with our son, Adam. In the spring of 2004, though, Michelle was diagnosed with breast cancer. Several weeks into her pre-surgery process, she had to go in for an imaging procedure. The nurse asked her, “When was your last cycle?” Michelle said, “Well, I’m a day late, but so what? I’m almost 44.” The nurse replied, “Sorry, we need you to do a pregnancy test, as we can’t do this scan if you’re pregnant.” Well, guess what? She WAS pregnant.
This turned out to be an incredibly stressful time period. We had just started TABR in February 2004, moving clients over to Fidelity from Prudential, moving into new offices in May 2004 in the middle of this, and also having to change group medical plans in the middle of the diagnosis so Michelle could have the surgery done at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, where we found a great team. She was dealing with breast cancer AND pregnancy. Thankfully, we’ve been blessed with great outcomes. And, we certainly know that doesn’t always happen. She had a mastectomy in the fall of 2004, and then had to get through the remaining months of pregnancy. Not so easy. Originally, she was to deliver the baby via a scheduled C-section on February 16, but a couple of weeks prior, the hospital called her and said they were too busy, that they had to re-schedule, and the only option was February 14, Valentine’s Day. And that is how our daughter became a Valentine’s Day baby.
For either my birthday or Christmas in late 2005, Michelle surprised me with this photo.
A lot has changed in nearly 15 years. Below is Caroline and older brother (26), Adam, at Christmas last December.
Finally, her 10 months of continuous training in cross country has earned her a spot on the Orange Lutheran varsity girls team (see below) as a sophomore, and they actually get to race against competition tomorrow for the first time since the Covid shutdowns last March.
As I’m sure many of you can attest who have both boys and girls as children, there’s something special about the Sweet 16 birthday for your daughter. And for us, having a Valentine’s birthday has been really neat. So, happy birthday to our daughter, Caroline Faith Kargenian (Faith was my wife’s idea given the story above). And, Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you, including the guys. Before this wraps, I’d also like to convey our thoughts and prayers for the many dear women in our life, including clients, friends and relatives who’ve had, and are dealing with breast cancer. It really never goes away. Fortunately, Michelle has been cancer free since Caroline was born. Indeed, a Sweet 16.
Sincerely,
Bob Kargenian, CMT
President
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