The Evenin' Shadders

“So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young...” — John Lennon Driving down the Broadway Extension, being passed by the reindeer-decorated Hummer, it’s pretty obvious that Christmas is close. Very close. The stores are well decorated, and a least one radio station is playing wall-to-wall Christmas carols. BC Clark has dusted off the jingle and we’ve already had snow and ice and winter isn’t even officially here yet. Yeah, call it Christmas in Oklahoma. But, to borrow a line from the late John Lennon, “what have we done?” I wish I knew the answer to that question. All across the state people are making plans, shopping and generally celebrating the Yuletide. Children — from 1 to 92 — are trying their best to behave and the rest of us are finding it difficult to focus at work. Christmas does that. Still, what have we done? For a brief time...

(Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series detailing the birth and heart surgery of Transcript reporter M. Scott Carter’s son, Zachary.) OKLAHOMA CITY — For a brief moment, we thought Zach might draw a bye for his first surgery. His blood oxygen levels were tracking much higher than normal. Because of this, the doctors wanted to stop the drug and see if those oxygen levels would stay high enough to send him home. If so, Zach might go home early and, even better, bypass the first surgery. The normal blood oxygen level for an infant is 100 percent; for Zach, a high was 87 percent. Two days after he was born, he was taken off the drug and slowly, his blood oxygen numbers fell. Wednesday night, Nov. 14, his oxygen level crashed like a bad ride on the stock market, falling into the low 40s. Surgery was scheduled for Nov. 20. • That Tuesday dawned cold, bright and smelling of fall. Karen — who had been discharged just a couple of days before — made a rare appearance home. She tr...

“No I would not give you false hope, on this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reunion is only a motion away…” — Paul Simon, Mother & Child Reunion (Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series detailing the birth and heart surgery of Transcript reporter M. Scott Carter’s son, Zachary.) OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s said that the heart — both spiritually and physically — is the essence of our human existence. Spiritually, the heart is the repository of grace; the lockbox of the soul. The direct connection with the Almighty. For ages, humans have been classified by the quality — the worth, if you will — of their heart. “She has a good heart,” people will say of a giving woman. Or, “he’s got the heart of a lion” — high praise for a man of courage and resourcefulness. Our hearts, we are taught, make us who we are. On the physical side, the heart is THE muscle of the body. It pulls in blood needing oxygen, shoves it down to the lungs were the oxygen is infused, then pus...