An Intimate Connection : Motherhood: What does one generation of women give to the next? For an Altadena family, it’s love and the strength to make their daughters’ lives better.

Anointed by the exalted experience of giving life to another, mothers share a certain spiritual communion. Yet each of their birth stories is unique and precious in its singular detail.

Giving birth to a daughter seems especially miraculous for its magical way of closing a secret circle between two people. In anticipation of Mother’s Day, three generations of the Garcia family of Altadena came together to share their memories of the day their daughters were born.

Justina Garcia, 62, mother of Jovita Glover, 45

“How could a mother ever forget the day her child is born? My first child, I remember some things very well--45 years, and still I remember!

“I remember a shy, very shy girl living with her godmother in Guadalajara. This girl is me, only 18 years old. Mi esposo is traveling around South America with his soccer team. It is a Saturday. Five o’clock in the morning, and I am starting to feel so bad.

“I was a very shy girl, you see, so I didn’t say anything, but my godmother, who was also my aunt, she knew about children, about having the babies. She could tell I was in pain. Very fast, she took me to the special clinic for women having babies.

“No, there was no anesthesia . . . and this was a very big baby, more than nine pounds. (But) by 9 o’clock that morning, my baby was born.

“I saw her face, and the first thing I said was: ‘She looks like her father’s side of the family. She doesn’t look like me.’

“I was happy, yes, but poco triste , a little sad too because she was a girl. She is going to have the same pain like me, I thought. She is going to suffer like women suffer. . . .

“They came and took the baby away almost as soon as she was born so I could rest. My father-in-law decided that her name would be Jovita. That was the name of someone in his family who had died. I don’t know who.

“My little Jovita, she had no pelo, not one little strand, and her head was very big.

“I had made many clothes for her, and so my godmother brought the clothes to me at the hospital. I sewed everything myself-- chambritas, camisitas, little diapers. I made them out of flannel to be soft.

“I embroidered the little shirts the Mexican way, the way my mother had taught me. They were pink. Pink like my new baby.”

Jovita Glover, 45, mother of Laura Glover, 24

“Unlike my mother, I didn’t have any four-hour labor. I wish I had. Seventeen hours was more like it.

“I began before the sun was even up. It was very early in the morning and kind of dark outside when my husband took me over to Queen of Angels Hospital. We were living in Boyle Heights then, and I had called the doctor, and he said, ‘Come on in.’

“It was Jan. 21--my due date exactly! My doctor was so good at that. He could predict the day exactly.

“I had an anesthetic, so I only saw parts of the birth. I do remember asking: ‘What is it? Girl or boy?’ When they said girl, I thought, well, I wonder if I’ll be like my mother and have six girls before I have a son.

“Then I remember asking: ‘Is my baby OK? Is she healthy?’ That’s when they told me she had jaundice, and I began to cry and cry because I was afraid she might not come home from the hospital with me.

“She was real yellow, and then she opened her eyes, and they were green. Green eyes! Later, when they brought her back for me to hold, her eyes looked so brown. I said: ‘Is this my baby? First, green eyes and now brown eyes?’

“Well, that set off quite a fuss at the hospital, and they all ran around and checked all the babies’ ID bracelets to make sure I had the right baby. And I did. Her eyes were just green for a while . . . maybe because of the jaundice. We never did find out.

“I chose her name myself. I almost gave her a Japanese name, after a really close Japanese friend of mine. But in English, the name meant Margaret, so that’s what we went with--Laura Margarita.

“A beautiful name, isn’t it? Part Japanese, part Spanish, part English. And what a beautiful baby she was. . . .”

Laura Glover, 24, mother of Sydni Chambers, 5

“What a day! I will never forget that day so long as I live. It was Saturday, April 15, and I was out shopping that morning with one of my aunts. We stopped into a Hallmark store, and I said, ‘Oh, man, wow, that hurt!’

“I grabbed my back in pain. It was three weeks before the baby was supposed to come. But 30 minutes later, I had another real bad pain. I had to hold on to a store rack. I couldn’t stand up.

“I told my aunt: ‘Take me home. I’ve got to lie down.’ Well, we walk in the door, and everybody jumps up, ‘Surprise! Surprise!’ It’s a surprise baby shower. For me! So I sat down and started opening present. . . .

“At one point, I had another pain, and I made an ugly face. Everybody said, ‘Are you all right?’ I said, ‘Oh sure.’ And so the baby shower goes on and on into the night. Everybody starts to go home, and suddenly I have this big craving for a bean and cheese burrito with lots of lettuce.

“So off we go to Taco Bell, and right in the drive-through, I have the worst pain yet. I go back home, and I’m lying with my mom in her bed. I’m tossing and turning, and my mom finally says, ‘What’s the matter?’ and I say, ‘Mom, I think the baby’s coming!’

“By the time we get to Huntington Hospital, it’s a little after midnight and I’m dilated four centimeters. The doctor says: ‘It’s time to go. Now!’

“Then she asks, ‘Who is coming in with you?’ My best friend was there, and so was my mom. I had to choose. I looked at my mom, and she said: ‘OK, Laura, I’ll do it. I’ll go with you. I’ll stay with you, honey.’

“Then we start into the delivery room, and there’s some blood and everything, and all of a sudden my mother isn’t looking so good. And she says to me: ‘I’m sorry. I just can’t do this. I’m so sorry.’ And she leaves.

“So then, they send my girlfriend in, and before you know it, she faints! She falls right into the IV pole and the monitoring machines and practically pulls me off the bed as she goes down.

“By now, I’m ready to have this baby. But I’m all by myself! The nurses helped a lot, and so did the doctor. I remember the doctor pushed her ponytail up into her cap and put on her gloves, and next thing I knew, I had a seven-pound baby daughter.

“I was happy. I was really happy. I said: ‘Oh God! I had a girl! I had a girl!’

“Then right away I got a little sad and kind of afraid--afraid of our society and what will happen to her.”