60-year-old Calgary mother welcomes twins

[Marigold2]

I feel the same way. If you can't afford a child don't have one, get yourself a pet rock.

I believe if you can afford to foot the bill for your children yourself, from birth through college, have as many as you want.

However, if you can't afford them, don't have them. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's how I feel.

I had one child. I paid his way, I never took a penny of public assistance. No way on this earth I could have afford two children, let alone six or eight or twelve. I could feed one, so I had one. Common sense.

But my tax dollars go to support women who want to have six or ten children. They don't have to worry about who is feeding them all.

[RICHARD]

I feel the same way. If you can't afford a child don't have one, get yourself a pet rock.

Some people are as dumb as rocks, so that would be a perfect adoption.

[Laura's Babies]

I want to know what any woman is thinking having a baby at that age?

[pomtzu]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!!! She probably won't live long enough to see them grown up. A 10 year old with a 70 year old mother???

I had both my kids by the time I was 25, and sometimes it was a challenge to keep up with them. Can't even imagine what this woman's going to do with active kids!!!

[Medusa]

I became exhausted just reading about it.

[Catty1]

NOW they tell us...this woman has a husband and an extended family....

http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald...101967d0c6&p=1

Joyous parents shrug at worldwide fuss
Valerie Fortney, Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, February 06, 2009

Ecstasy. Joy. Boundless hope for the future. That's the way Ranjit Hayer's family is taking the news of the birth of twin boys to the 60-year-old, first-time mother.

But big, worldwide news? Not on your life.

No matter that mom is 60. Yes, you read it right. Six-O. Eligible for the Canadian Pension Plan.

No matter that she's the oldest known person in Canada to give birth, through in vitro fertilization of donor eggs in her home country of India after being rejected as too old for treatment in Canada.

Born on Tuesday, the little guys, Manjot and Gurpreet, who are seven weeks premature but reportedly in good health, represent the realization of their parents' 40-year dream.





Yes, this is big news.Big enough that by Thursday afternoon, it made its way around the world. From Europe's International Herald Tribune to Internet news sites in China, everyone is talking about the 60-year-old mom and her miracle babies.

Not surprisingly, it's news with more than a tinge of controversy. On the Herald's website, readers have expressed their surprise and, in many cases, out-and-out anger and horror over this marvel of modern medical technology. To many, it's a 21st century nightmare.

Admit it: even if you support the idea of women doing what men have done for centuries--having babies late in life--a mom at 60 is a tough one to wrap your head around. To which the family of Ranjit Hayer give a collective "Huh?"

Sorry folks, but those who know and love Ranjit and her husband Jagir just don't get what all the fuss is about. In their minds, she was simply following the adage of, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

I met some of Ranjit's relatives Thursday morning. It's a few hours before the TV news begin running the endless loops of commentary on the event, much of it critical of the late-in-life delivery.

Early in the day, they are feeling buoyant, if a little naive in their surprise that anyone is even interested in this.

"They never really ever gave up," says Ranjit's younger sister, Daljit.

"We always prayed for them to have children. . . . We always supported them," says the 49-year-old mother of three through an interpreter. "This is a very special moment."

If you're looking for any hints that this is a family that loves and treasures its younger members, you need not look very far.

The walls of Daljit's Whitehorn home are covered in oversized framed portraits of family, many of which feature Ranjit and Jagir posing with the children of their siblings.

"They were more than aunt and uncle," says Daljit, who is married to Jagir's brother, Malkiat. "They treated our children like their own."

But having their own proved to be a lifelong heartbreak. Over the decades, Ranjit suffered several miscarriages, and fertility treatments that were unsuccessful.

The beaming smile on her husband's bearded face speaks volumes about how he and his wife feel about their change in fortune.

"I'm very happy,"says the blue-jean wearing new dad as he paddles around barefoot in his immaculate home. "God has given me boys later in life --I want to throw a big party."

But as we watch the lunchtime news together, his face contorts as he listens to the reporter use words like"ethics" and "controversy."

He becomes visibly distressed, and begins to tell us, "No news, no news."

In this house, the love for children is again obvious: the same big framed portraits at his brother's house of young relatives, many now adults, adorn the walls.

Upstairs, a room sits empty but for an old trunk and suitcase. Jagir, 60, admits that he hasn't gotten around yet to fitting it out for the new residents, because he wanted to "keep it low key."

Later in the day, I bump into Glenys Godlovitch at Foothills Hospital.I ask her if it makes a difference that these late-in-life parents have such a close-knit, extended family.

"I think it's huge, it's enormous," says the acting director for the office of medical bioethics at the University of Calgary.

"If these are children being born into a fully orchestrated, welcoming community, that will address some of the social concerns for them."

But she does acknowledge it's a complicated issue, filled with more shades of grey than comfortable black-and-white; and that this is indeed big, big news.

"It's quite extraordinary, isn't it?"

That's a reality that, no doubt, will soon dawn on the Hayer family.


© The Calgary Herald 2009

[RICHARD]

Catty,

Why are you complaining?

You only have two to support.


I and my fellow Cah lee fuh nee ahs have 14 to deal with.

And since I do support them I am going to court to get visitation rights!