Great things come from small towns

Published 9:11 pm Friday, June 18, 2010

Sunday will mark my sixth Father’s Day as a dad.

As important as the first one was, tomorrow I will hit another milestone as the father of two.

Bradlee Lane Cannon was born Tuesday, June 8, at Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital in Demopolis.

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At that very moment, Lizzie, our first daughter, became a big sister with the arrival of our second daughter.

Lizzie will be six years old next month, so I had forgotten what having a baby entailed.

Part of what has made the experience so enjoyable so far is the support and care we’ve received from our friends, co-workers and the community.

Tiffany and I continue to be grateful for the phone calls, emails and text messages. The spaghetti and lasagna dinners were especially thoughtful – and delicious.

A trip to the hospital is rarely a welcome thought, but the staff at BWWMH did more than their share to make our stay comfortable.

Dr. Ronnie Chu and his staff quickly became an extension of the Cannon family, as did the third-floor staff at the hospital.

Hospitals are a lot like schools. People like to complain about them and always look to larger towns for what they would consider better services. If the city is larger, everything is better, right?

Not always.

I can tell you, having lived in three different counties since graduating college – and having had a baby in one of the state’s largest and most economically affluent counties – that the services and people in Demopolis are unrivaled.

The hospitality my family has experienced these past two years has been overwhelming. As we welcomed our newest addition to our family, that hospitality went to a completely different level of exceptional.

Jason Cannon is the editor and publisher of The Demopolis Times.