Member-only story
A DAD’S STORY: THE SURREAL SAGA OF JEAN (SAM) HANKS
How Brand New Parents Were Traumatized by a Typo
Every fan of The Godfather knows the movie scene by heart: Hulking hitman Luca Brasi nervously rehearsing his congratulatory speech to Don Corleone on his daughter’s wedding day. “. . . And may their first child be a MASCULINE child.”
But I would never utter such words. Nor would I have ever wanted to hear them, especially when I found out I was becoming a DAD.
My wife Bea didn’t become pregnant until late December 1991, 10 years after we were married. We had been very preoccupied with our careers in publishing and giving birth to things like magazines. As Bea was just past 40 at the time, she submitted to an amniocentesis test and we figured hey, as long as we’re here, why not find out the gender? The great news was that the fetus showed no developmental abnormalities. As for the gender, all things being equal, I was really hoping for a little girl. But when the amnio showed BOY, I was more than okay with that. Either way, there would be Little League coaching in my future.
We decided to name him “Sam.”
Although Bea was brought up Protestant, we had a Jewish wedding and my bride was on board for bringing up the baby as a Jew. Sam was our default boy’s name because I didn’t…
