“I’m expecting,” an old woman announced to a visitor one day.  She was strapped in a wheelchair and a bib was tied around her neck.  “The baby is coming any day now,” she said, patting her midsection.

“Pay no attention to her,” an aide told the visitor, as she moved to wheel the old woman back to her room, “she says that all the time.  Shame on you Lucille, you are no more expecting than the man in the moon.  Why don’t you stop all this silly talk?”

“I am too expecting,” Lucille insisted, “the doctor told me I am.”

That was the day Cindy began working in the nursing home and about three months before she learned that she was pregnant.  By then she and Lucille had become fast friends.  Cindy worked in housekeeping so she got into all of the residents’ rooms every day.  She visited with each one as she cleaned.  Lucille soon became her favorite.  Aside from her imaginary pregnancy she seemed very much in touch with the real world, and she was a delightful conversationalist.  She had been a hairdresser before she retired, and so had much to tell about all the people who had come into her shop over the years.

As Cindy began to show, she and Lucille talked more and more about babies.  Lucille had never had a child of her own.  “This would be her first,” she said.  Cindy never knew quite what to say when she came out with things like that.  She didn’t encourage her but she didn’t argue with her either.

Each day when Cindy came to work, Lucille would ask her how she was feeling and what the baby had been doing.  Cindy would tell her about the baby’s kicking and somersaults and hiccups.  Sometimes, when the baby was especially active she would allow Lucille to put her hand on her stomach and feel the baby’s movements.

A few weeks after the baby was born Cindy brought him to the nursing home to show everyone.  She took him to Lucille’s room first and triumphantly handed him into Lucille’s waiting arms.  Lucille cuddled him for a while, asked his name and insisted that Cindy tell her all about the delivery.  When she was finished telling all that she could remember, Cindy asked Lucille if she would like to hold the baby as she showed him around.  Lucille beamed with delight.

“He’s here, He’s here!  The baby’s here,” Lucille called out as Cindy wheeled them down the hallway.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and hurried over to see the baby.  “He’s here at last,” Lucille told them, “And his name is Immanuel.”