This story comes from my years in the Turkana Desert in northern Kenya.  It is one fittingly of “Mother and Child” …except that this one is all about “Mother and Triplet Children!”  In Lorugumu, we ran a small, bedded dispensary and had a vibrant mother ad child health clinic and outreach programme.  One mother who was attending was called Helen. She was a teacher in Turkwell where the late Sr. Joannes Meehan MMM was running a kindergarten with Sr. Clotilda, an Ursuline Sister.

Joannes told me she believed Helen, one of their teachers was expecting (at the very least) triplets based on her dimensions!  We midwives  believed she was pregnant with twins; these were the days long before ultra-sound. We advised Helen to stay in the area for the birth although her home was away at the border region of Turkana.  Despite our advice, Helen went home.  Late one night, Fr. Seamus O’Neill SPS, who was in the mission with the late Msgr. Johnny Mahon (later to become the first Bishop of the Diocese of Turkana), came to our house to say that a runner – a male messenger- had come to the mission from Helen’s home area saying there were big problems and could we come immediately.  So, Seamus and I set out in the mission open-backed land-rover on a warm starry night for a drive of about 30 kilometres. I took a maternity delivery pack, a drawer as a crib for the babies and all the provisions I needed.  We set out wondering what and who exactly we would find and earnestly praying we could be able to cope.  We were two midwives and I reminded Seamus of his role!

When we arrived, we were led to the manyatta where Helen was squatting on the floor since early morning with a tiny baby boy beside her in the arms of one of the elder women. She had gone into labour again, I proceeded to assist and then shortly we had the birth of a second little boy. He was greeted with low sounds that were like moaning outside in the compound; I wondered what they meant, rejoicing or wonder?  Within about a half hour we had the birth of a third baby boy. This birth was greeted with even louder sounds that were definitely eerie and for me worrying.

Seamus talked to the elders and we knew we had better leave quickly for Lorugumu where we would keep Helen and the three tiny boys for a week or so.  We put the three babies in the back of the land-rover in the drawer  with me as guardian while Helen and a woman relative sat in front with Seamus. We reached Lorugumu in the early hours of the next morning and were greeted by Bosco the night watchman, and night superintendent.  He was awe struck!

Our next task was to send an urgent message by radio telephone to Helen’s husband who was down country in the Kenyan army. What to put in the message became a real issue: “congratulations on the birth of your triplets” was definitely not acceptable as the Turkana people did not know of triplets.  So, we compromised and wrote “Come home, family medical emergency.” Can you imagine his amazement when he arrived to realise that he was now the father of four children, his little five-year-old daughter and her three newly born brothers?

Helen and the babies did very well and from what I learned after I left Turkana all three grew to be adult men. These were the first recorded triplets born to a Turkana couple and their birth and  early weeks of life in Lorugumu remain forever in my mind as a wonderful memory of great years of ministry and service to a special people by MMM.