“POOKER ANNIE” … my dad’s nickname for me. YES … another story. Stay with me, as it all comes together. I was due to be born in July 1963. However … my mother got into a car accident in May and was bleeding internally. She had a wonderful doctor from Egypt … Dr. Kamel Ali Hassan (see attached immigration card … all I could find, but know he died in 1984). He told my parents that he would try something a little risky if they wanted to attempt to save both mom and child (in lieu of a safer route of … just save mom). This was their first child and they want it so badly … that they put their trust in God and Dr. Hassan. When the long surgery was over he explained to my dad that he has able to stop my mom’s bleeding, but had to actually lift me up and out of the way in order to repair the damage. So they would know within 48 hours if the baby would even live and if the baby went to term … there would be no guarantee that the infant would be normal and healthy. So the waiting started. My mom told the story … on day 2, while lying in her hospital bed with a rather large abdominal incision; she felt the most excruciating (wonderful) pain. I kicked! Over one hurdle. Two months later I arrived on time with pediatric specialist on board. The only thing that resulted from my 1st birth (lol), was a very low birth weight and I was very skittish. I would throw my arms back and shrill (not too different than today).Well … when I did this … it was very frightening to watch, so my dad started calling me “Spooky”. My mom was outraged, because … back in the 60’s … Spooky was a very derogatory word for African Americans. So dad started calling me “Pooky” which by adding my middle name of Anne … it evolved into “Pooker Annie”. He actually made up a little song … “Little Pooker Annie is my Sweetheart”. Still sings it today.
NOW you know the rest of the story.
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