From PEOPLE Magazine
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Boy, was she in for a surprise. Not only was Garcia two months pregnant—she was carrying triplets. "The news came like a bright star," says Garcia, whose other children range in age from 16 to 35. "To have a child is so wonderful; you never feel like you're too old." Her pregnancy stunned fertility experts for two reasons: The average age of menopause is 51, and triplets occur in just one of every 8,000 pregnancies. "The probability of someone over 50 having triplets is one in a million," says Dr. Larry Shields, a perinatal specialist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
From the start, Garcia, a practicing Catholic, took the news in stride. "I always had faith everything would be okay," she says. Her husband of 37 years, Guillermo, 60, who grows tomatoes and chilis on the family's two-acre farm, was less sanguine. He feared the triplets might have chromosomal problems, which their medical team estimates afflict 1 in 10 children born to women aged 49—the highest age the team has documented. "I prayed to God that the children not be born with disabilities," says Guillermo, who also fretted about the health of his wife.
As it turned out, Garcia suffered no complications. When she delivered the babies by cesarean section at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital on Jan. 8, eight months into her pregnancy, all three girls were born healthy, ranging in weight from 3 lbs. 7 oz. to 5 lbs. 12.5 oz. Awake throughout her hour-long C-section, Garcia was attended in the delivery room by her daughter Rafaela Rodriguez, 30, whose own four children call the triplets their "little aunties." As each preemie emerged, says Garcia, "my daughter would say, 'There's the first one! She's fine!' and I would say, 'Thank God!' " Three days later, Garcia, who speaks only Spanish, sat for a lengthy press conference. Afterward she proclaimed, "I'm not tired at all," then turned her attention to the children and grandchildren crowding around her.
It was precisely that kind of devotion that moved her and Guillermo to bring their family to the U.S. in 1975 from an impoverished ranch in Mexico's Michoacan Province. "She saw that the future was not secure for us there," says oldest child Miguel, 35. Initially sharing a California apartment with Guillermo's brother, who had five children of his own, the Garcias picked crops throughout the state before settling in Washington in 1976. In 1996, Arcelia became a U.S. citizen; Guillermo's status is pending.
Garcia expects that after her hospital stay, Brianna and Cecilia, the two biggest babies, will accompany her home. She hopes the smallest, Arianna, will follow within a week. The triplets' eight siblings, meanwhile, are hatching plans to provide financial assistance. "We're going to organize," vows Miguel. With three Garcia sons still at home and another two grown children living in town, there are plenty of hands to help with the babies.
Still, Garcia remains the center of the newborns' crowded universe. She plans to breast-feed all three. "They're healthier that way," she says. Though she aims to return to the fields, Garcia says, "for now, I will take care of my babies. They'll need lots of love, and who else can give it to them but me?"
Jill Smolowe
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