THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603090398
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
Angela and Darin Jones got a glimpse Friday of their future as parents of quadruplets.
Boy, will they be busy. And noticed.
This was them at noon Friday, leaving Riverside Regional Medical Center for home just three weeks after the quartet's birth on Valentine's Day:
Swirling snow. Bitter cold. Borrowed minivan.
Two diaper bags. Four child-safety seats, part of the tractor-trailer load of new and used baby goods donated by more than 500 civic groups, churches, businesses and individuals who have called the hospital to help the Isle of Wight County couple, whose income is modest.
Angela Jones carried one of the four boys. She didn't know which one; name tags on the infants' ankles will help identify them until they've been home awhile.
Uteria Hardy, Angela Jones' mother, carried another. Queen Johnson, Darin Jones' grandmother, carried a third. Kathy Bolen, a nurse in the Special Care Nursery, carried the fourth.
Darin Jones carried a 4-foot stuffed toy stork and held the hand of the Joneses' 5-year-old daughter, Shakeeta. A group of hospital staffers in the lobby applauded the entourage.
One blanket-swaddled baby went into the car. Back out he came while his seat was adjusted. Back in he went. Two more followed, and then the fourth. Then two were moved to their mother's lap in the front seat. More adjustments.
By now a nurse and two hospital officials were inside the van, strapping down seats and babies. Outside, hospital workers and passers-by stopped to look, smile, coo and wave.
``Four boys?'' a man asked, moving in for a closer look. ``That's a blessing.''
A woman stopped, gawked, and pulled another woman up to the van. They peered in the passenger-side window, inches from Angela Jones' face.
``Oh my God!'' one said.
``Boy, she's got a handful!'' the other said.
The women walked away smiling and shaking their heads. Angela and Darin Jones, consistently gracious and good-humored and optimistic in the months since learning their young family would more than double in size, weren't smiling as much.
They were ready to take their family home.
``It's going to be a madhouse, I know,'' Angela Jones, 26, had said earlier. ``Thank God I've got a lot of help. But it's going to be fun.''
She had been up in the nursery, with newspaper and TV photographers and reporters clustered around her and Darin, 27, Shakeeta and the four sleeping boys: Kameron, Karon, Kahlil and Karlyle, all about 4 pounds, all healthy. Shakeeta alternately yawned and shielded her eyes from the camera lights, shyly declining to answer reporters' questions.
``The fear is knowing now the reality is going to kick in,'' Darin Jones said. ``It's been easy, here in the hospital.
``It's kinda scary. But I'm kinda excited.''
They hadn't asked for this. Angela Jones took no fertility drugs. The natural quadruple births were a once-in-600,000 occurrence.
She was a year from completing an education degree at Christopher Newport University. Darin Jones runs a small house-cleaning business.
They live in a two-bedroom trailer home, and drive a tiny Chevrolet Chevette.
``It's devastated them financially,'' said Bud Ramey, the hospital's public relations director.
But the public has responded generously. Enough clothes for the babies' first year, including several four-of-a-kind outfits. Enough formula for the first year, as a supplement to Angela Jones' breastfeeding. Some 20 pacifiers. About $4,000 cash.
Midas Muffler Shops donated the car seats.
Farm Fresh provided a year's supply of disposable diapers - Darin Jones has them stashed in closets all over the house, under the church-donated double-decker crib in the master bedroom the boys are taking over, and even in a shed outside the house.
The Joneses have two double-strollers, and relatives, friends and people from their church lined up to help the parents at home.
A limousine service offered to drive the Joneses home Friday, but the couple and hospital officials declined, worried about the impression it might give at a time when they're still soliciting help.
Asked what they need most, Darin laughs and answers quickly: ``A larger home. A van.''
And someday, probably, some privacy.
Another couple with quadruplets got in touch with the Joneses to share their experience.
``They pretty much let us know that you're going to get mobbed when you go outside, like when you go to a mall,'' Darin Jones said.
Meanwhile, the news-media mob wanted to know which baby was which.
Angela: ``Who do you have?''
Darin, looking at the two babies in his arms: ``I have Karon and Kameron. I don't know in what order.'' He looked back and forth at their faces, then up at his wife: ``I don't know!''
About an hour later, at 12:26 p.m., followed by TV news crews, the Jones family drove home. Mother, father, sister and brothers will have plenty of time to get to know one another. MEMO: Individuals or organizations interested in donating to the Jones'
quadruplets are asked to call nurse Mary K. Thompson at the hospital,
594-2194.
ILLUSTRATION: It's a boy! It's a boy! It's a boy! It's a boy!
[Color Photos]
Riverside Regional Medical Center sent this card to everyone who had
helped or made contributions to the family of Angela and Darin
Jones.
JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Virginian-Pilot
At homecoming time, Shakeeta Jones, 5, clasped her hands to her
face, surrounded by parents Darin and Angela and, from left,
Kameron, Karon, Kahlil and Karlyle. Could anyone tell which brother
was which? Sure - by reading the tags on their ankles.
KEYWORDS: MULTIPLE BIRTHS by CNB