Photo by Chris Witzke
Paul “Eddie” Coleman’s speeding minivan slides as he stomps on the brakes just before the Bardstown Road exit on the Watterson Expressway. He hops out, flapping his arms for help. It’s just past 11 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 18. The 34-degree night creeps through his hoodie and jeans. Eddie’s wife, Margaret, roars: “This baby’s coming!”
Her water broke just 20 minutes ago at their Shepherdsville home. Margaret clutches the console and her chair, breathing in heavy moans. The hospital is about three miles away. Should they just pedal-to-the-metal there? Adrenaline pulses, but Eddie, a 47-year-old with silver hair and a dash of Paul Newman’s good looks, shoves aside panic and pushes his wife’s seat back. He pulls down her pants, catching the first glimpse of his son — a crown of dark blond wisps. “Oh, my God, I can see the top of his head!” Eddie cries.
Traffic zips by, unaware that a baby boy’s agenda will catapult his father into heroics. By the second push, Eddie’s hands, the hands that assemble Ford SUVs for a living, grab Grayson Scott Coleman’s narrow shoulders and tug. The minivan’s clock reads 11:23 p.m. The newborn’s eyes are open. But where are the cries? I need to get his mouth clear, Eddie thinks. For a guy who has never taken so much as a CPR class, instinct kicks in. He flips Grayson over and his boy unleashes glorious wails. Thank God.
Eddie cranks up the van’s heat and wraps Grayson in towels. He places the six-pound, 14-ounce newborn on Margaret’s chest. The boy’s tiny fingers grip his 46-year-old mother’s right pinky. “Hey, Grayson. Hi, little buddy,” she whispers. Speed laws be damned. The Colemans arrive at the hospital in two or three minutes. Doctors and nurses marvel at Eddie’s side-of-the-road delivery.
Even several months after that night, as he approaches his first Father’s Day as a father of three boys, he’s still hearing a version of this joke from friends: “Can you deliver my kid and save me money on my insurance?” His response: “I’m not a doctor. I just played one for a little while.”
This originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of Louisville Magazine. To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. [4] To find you very own copy of Louisville Magazine, click here. [5]