Stephanie Travis already had spent two days at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center when just an hour into the new year, she gave birth to her first child.
Her husband, Benjamin Brown, said by phone that the couple didn’t initially think their son would arrive on New Year’s Day — the due date was days away — but were excited at the possibility.
“Once it happened, I was like, ‘Wow,'” Brown said. “I love this child.”
Brown, 38, spent New Year’s Day in the hospital watching his wife and their son, Phillip, bond.
“They are both healthy, I’m grateful to God,” Brown said.
The West Side couple met in March 2016 at a polling location in Chicago, he said. As Travis, 29, was headed into the polling place to vote, she stopped to talk to Brown, who was volunteering for a local politician. The two connected, and their relationship soon blossomed.
They decided to name their first child for Travis’ late father, a former Chicago police officer who died in 2017 after dealing with cancer. Brown said his late father-in-law was kind to him and well-respected in the community.
“I figured the right thing to do would be to name him Phillip,” Brown said.
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