By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — When she gets a little older, Kendall Jo Miller will get to hear quite the story about the day she was born.
It was a Tuesday morning, Oct. 26, shortly before 8 and Kendall’s grandmother, Teresa Price, was trying desperately to get through traffic. Little Kendall’s mother, Vanessa Miller, was already in labor.
With the Dallas mom-to-be’s contractions barely a minute apart, the women pulled into the parking lot of a Publix at the corner of Mars Hill Road and Dallas Highway in west Cobb and called 911.
“We thought an ambulance would get us to the hospital faster,” Miller said.
But Kendall wouldn’t wait. The bed of the Toyota Tundra would have to do.
On Thursday, the Miller family, including father Joseph and 4-year-old big sister Abigail, stopped by fire station No. 13 to thank those who helped with the delivery.
For paramedic David Byrd, delivering babies was nothing new. The father of three said Kendall made number 17.
But no other deliveries were quite like this.
“Backseats are more comfortable, but there was plenty of room in the bed of the truck,” Byrd said.
Miller said her due date was Nov. 8, but she knew she would deliver before that. Still, she never imagined where.
“I was in so much pain, nothing really set in,” she said. “But once it’s over, it’s over.”
Kendall’s grandfather plans to keep the truck so it can be hers later on, Joseph Miller said. “This is a story that will be told for generations.”
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution