“I don’t keep a lot of stuff. I’m not a stuff person. But this thing I’ve kept. Wherever I’ve moved, I’ve kept it in a special place because it just represents, to me, the hope of having a great life.”
Roxy Gantes was born in San Bernardino. The very next day, she was in the newspaper.
My mother and her sister were pregnant together. They gave birth on the same day, same room, same doctor. My cousin was born at 8am, and I was born at 8pm. And our fathers had the same name – they were both named Mike. The doctor was on his way to a party, and he was in a tuxedo, and he couldn’t change because I came so fast. So I was delivered by a doctor wearing a tuxedo, in addition to being in a newspaper on the first day I was born, with my favorite cousin, and my favorite aunt.
These circumstances made Roxy feel special as a child.
When I was a little girl I would take it to show-and-tell because there weren’t many other children that had been in the newspaper especially on the day they were born.
As she grew up, Roxy continued to lead an extraordinary life.
I’ve lived many different lives I’ve jumped out of planes, I’ve raced racecars, and I was married twice before the age of 21. Life in the fast lane. I ended up getting pregnant, and married. I raised my son, put myself through college, and ended up becoming a celebrity therapist out in Arizona, at a dude ranch. I had clients flying me all over the world to help them.
Roxy later moved to Massachusetts, where she advocated for rural mental health services and alternative treatments. She retired from this career field last year, after a series of personal losses.
About a year ago I had three cousins die right in a row, and they were all around my age. I found that I just couldn’t be a therapist anymore — I don’t care how good a therapist’s boundaries are; if you are just soaking up trauma, trauma, trauma, it gets to be a lot.
Roxy’s now self-employed as a professional artist.
My life is amazing. It’s weird because I thought I’d want a Leave it to Beaver kind of life. But I always watched Mary Tyler Moore, and I loved that show way more, and that’s the life I got.
Roxy is still close with her “twin cousin,” who appears in the newspaper article with her. They lived together for several months when Roxy moved back to California and was getting settled, and they still enjoy recounting their arrival into the world on the same day.
She’ll always say she’s so much older and wiser. And I’ll always say I’m so much younger and cuter.
Looking back on why she has kept the newspaper article all of these years, she thinks that it has something to do with the importance of the message that she takes away from it – that she was destined to live an extraordinary life.
It’s not so much what happens to you. It’s what message you take from it. We can all have something happen to us, and we’ll all take away a different message. And I took a message from that little piece of paper that inspired me. To be a kid and to have that message early on — that my life’s supposed to mean something — it’s a really good message for a kid to have. Holding onto the article helps me to keep myself in check — I want to make it happen! I think we have agreements in life, and one of my agreements is to do my part, to make my life count.