Undoubtedly some of you who read that title thought I was referring to Nadya Whats-her-face, the Octomom who recently gave birth to 8 babies at once on top of the 6 she already has. No, I am not referring to her and her plump lips. I’m talking about my grandma.

Yes, that there lady done birthed 14 youngins, and we still talk to some of them! Joyce, Charlene, Donna, Steve, Nancy, Annette, Dennis, Larry, Rick, Ron, Elaine, Greg, Lori, and Brian. That’s seven girls and seven boys, which goes to show that probability really does work out over a long enough time span. Now, my gramma had her babies over the course of 25 years, not 8 at a time. My aunts and uncles have limited themselves to 3 offspring a piece at the most, suggesting they were not so fond of the situation as to repeat it themselves. So, it’s certainly a different situation than the octomom. Stilll, I always feel a bit odd when people say something like, “That’s crazy! Can you believe she has fourteen kids?” Why, yes I can. And what you be sayin’ about my momma’s momma?

My mother’s family grew up in rural Indiana, where there were a couple other families with 12 or 14 kids. Grandpa worked at Sears his whole life and Grandma raised enough kids to start a couple basketball teams. They lived in a tiny house with 4 beds in a room. Each kid got a drawer and half a shelf. All those kids managed to go to college too. I don’t know how, but they did. It was only when my mom brought only one suitcase of belongings to college that she realized how poor they were.

So when I think about this recession, which might become a depression, I know I will survive somehow. Things could get bad. I could lose my job and have to move in with someone else. I might have to give up Netflix and sell my couch. It would suck, but all that is survivable. And, okay, sure, my mother joined the Peace Corps straight out of college and lived in Micronesia for two years because she just had to get away. But she turned out all right! She’s probably reading this entry right now. Wave to my mom, y’all!

I don’t know what Grandma was thinking, spending ten and a half years pregnant. I don’t know what the Octomom was thinking either. I know I wouldn’t make the same choice. But if you ask me if I can believe that someone had 14 kids, the answer is, “Yes, I can.”