Genevieve McCorquodale and Lorne Warr are calling their newborn baby their "little miracle."
Liliana Marion Warr was due during the holidays but, with all the excitement, her parents had failed to check if there was a special ferry schedule in effect.
Early on Christmas morning, McCorquodale woke up with contractions. She was thinking, "This can't happen today" because she had planned to unwrap presents with her older kids. Her contractions were strong but a few minutes apart so she woke the kids at 4 a.m. and told them they were going to have "an express Christmas" so they could catch the first ferry.
"We considered calling the water taxi and the ambulance but we really wanted to take our van into town," McCorquodale said. "I didn't realize that there was a different Christmas schedule. I knew there was no 5:30 a.m. ferry but then there was no 6:30 a.m. ferry and the contractions were consistent and strong."
At last, 7:30 a.m. rolled around but no ferry arrived. At that point, McCorquodale phoned a friend who told her that the 8:30 ferry would be the first boat leaving Bowen.
"All I could do was focus on the moment," McCorquodale said. "Lorne has never been through this before so he was looking to me to decide what to do."
Luckily, the couple was comfortable in the van. "We had tea there. We made ourselves at home," said McCorquodale. "This was where Lorne wrote his song Back to the Island Again."
The couple boarded the 8:30 ferry and then hurried to Lion's Gate Hospital. "We got there at 9:30 a.m. and I have never been so thankful to see a hospital," McCorquodale said. "When a midwife checked me, I was 7 cm dilated and the baby arrived within 45 minutes."
"She was our little miracle right from the beginning," said McCorquodale who had been using birth control. "When I went to Dr. Schloegl's office, I had joked, 'If I am pregnant, you can call me Mary.' And then the baby is born on Christmas Day. She really came into the world with gusto."
McCorquodale is happy to report that her older children were not upset that they didn't have the chance to leisurely open presents on Christmas Day. In fact, the presents lay forgotten on Boxing Day when they met Liliana.
