A Bundle of Joy--in Triplicate

--A Michigan woman who agreed to bear a child for her infertile sister failed to conceive in three attempts at artificial insemination, but on the fourth try she really delivered--triplets! When the sisters saw each other for the first time after the three boys were born by Caesarean section, they broke into happy tears, said Martin Wilks, whose wife, Jeanette, 32, was the surrogate mother. She took no fertility drugs and there was no history of multiple births in the family, Wilks said. The three boys, eight weeks premature, were born at Sinai Hospital of Detroit and, said Dr. Michael Berke, all were doing well. “I’m positive they’re the first reported surrogate triplet situation,” said Noel Keane, a lawyer who has arranged more than 100 surrogate births. Wilks said his wife agreed to be artificially inseminated with her brother-in-law’s sperm because her 34-year-old sister was unable to conceive. “She loves her so much she just wanted her to have children,” said Wilks, 34, of St. Clair Shores, who was with his wife during the delivery. He said his sister-in-law did not want to be identified.

--President Reagan once rose early after a long sea voyage to glimpse the Statue of Liberty as it hove into sight. In an article, to be published in Parade magazine Sunday, Reagan recalls sighting the statue for the first time in 1949, while sailing on the Queen Mary from England after four months abroad filming “The Hasty Heart.” “As we approached New York,” the President wrote, “I asked the crew for our exact time of arrival. It would be 4 o’clock the next morning. . . .I rose early and was at the ship’s rail as we passed through the Verrazano Narrows. A smattering of lights from a sleeping New York City lay ahead and to the right. But the Statue of Liberty, the first bit of America I wanted to see, was straight ahead, facing me like a welcoming friend, illuminated in the dark of early morning. I was home.”

--Gieves and Hawkes, the exclusive London tailors of No. 1 Savile Row have a few do’s and don’ts for those attending the July 23 nuptials of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. Leave your sword at home. “Imagine the clatter of swords in Westminster Abbey if everyone in uniform wore one,” said Robert Gieve. “You might imagine that those fortunate enough to be invited would know how to dress,” said Gieve, 47. “But I am sorry to say that is not so today when the maintenance of traditional values is being too readily diluted.” So it’s afternoon dresses for the ladies and military uniforms or morning dress or business suit for the gentlemen. Buttonhole flowers are worn only by the immediate family and gentlemen should polish the instep under their black, laced shoes.