I wrote this story for the Grand Coulee Star newspaper in 1997.

Double dose of fatherhood for local pharmacist
by Temple A. Stark

It's that right index finger. When Rob Hughes sees himself wagging it, he sees his father.

But Rob says it was his own father, a teacher and a lecturer, who was the best example for how he should handle his own adventures and responsibilities in fatherhood.

And with that pattern of responsibility to build on, Rob,the new pharmacist at Coulee Community Hospital, said he has always looked forward to having children. He and his wife Wendy, both 27, now have two. Wendy is a family nurse practitioner at the hospital and in Coulee City.

Born April 13, Jonathan Thomas Hughes is the most recent addition to their family. "He was scheduled for tax day," Rob says, "but we filed early this year."

Rachel, born Feb. 17 in Spokane four years ago, took to Jonathan like only a big sister can — in his face and trying to get him to smile at her.

"It seemed like the first time I held him, and then her, she gained weight," Rob says. "She used to seem pretty light when I carried her around."

Being their first, everything surrounding Rachel's birth was a mystery, including whether she would be a boy or girl. With Jonathan, they satisfied the curiosity of family members and found out early.

Rob, with Wendy to back him up, said their second child was a lot easier, with less worry and more knowledge of what to expect. Jonathan was born at Coulee Community Hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning. It went smoothly and everyone was a lot calmer, Rob says.

But then it took a few days to get back into the swing of things.

"The classes you take, tell you everything but it doesn't sink in until you've done it," Rob says. "It's just all the little details of caring for a newborn I'd forgotten and we reminded ourselves to get back into that mode."

Rob says he'd become used to Rachel's ability to verbally express her feelings, rather than the guesswork sometimes involved in discovering what's making Jonathan cry.

Like his children, Rob also finds himself in a total world of discovery: new words; working with the patterns of a totally dependent person; how they'll learn life's lessons; how hard it will be to let them; wondering how they will find new ways to express themselves.