Surrogate Grandmother Planning a Special Delivery

--A 48-year-old South African grandmother is pregnant with test-tube triplets belonging to her daughter and son-in-law. Pat Anthony agreed to undergo the in-vitro fertilization procedure using her daughter’s ova and her son-in-law’s sperm after her 25-year-old daughter, Karen Ferreira-Jorge, nearly died while giving birth to her only child. “I am a grandmother who is carrying and will bear her own grandchildren,” Anthony was quoted by the British newspaper, The Mail, as saying. “They will be very special indeed.” Said Alcino Ferreira-Jorge: “I couldn’t be more delighted that my mother-in-law will give birth to my children.” It is the first known case of surrogate motherhood in South Africa. The babies are due in October. Mayor Victor Borchers of Tzaneen, where the family lives, said the town council would consider a formal celebration when the babies are born.

--A British lord said he has located the American GI who carved the initials “R. J.” into a tree on his 6,000-acre estate in 1944. The Marquess of Hertford had launched a search for R. J. earlier this year. He said he needed to cut down a dying beech tree on his estate, Ragley Hall, which was used as a military hospital in World War II, and wanted to find the American soldier who carved on it: “RJ US ARMY 1944.” Margareta Cootes of Portsmouth, England, saw a newspaper story about Hertford’s quest and sent it to a longtime American pen pal, Robert Johnson, 63, of Carthage, N.C. “Well, gee whiz, I was there and I did carve on his tree,” Johnson wrote in reply. Johnson said he was 20 when he was hospitalized at Ragley Hall for tonsillitis and carved his initials on the tree on impulse one day while roaming the grounds. Hertford had planned to fly R. J. to England for a visit, but Johnson, who is in a wheelchair, cannot make the trip. Instead, Hertford said he would send him the piece of wood the carving is on.

--A 44-year-old pub owner has become the first member of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party to win elected office in Britain. Alan Hope was one of 12 candidates in the running for 12 seats on the Ashburton Town Council in Devon and was automatically elected. The fringe party, which was founded four years ago by pop singer Screaming Lord Sutch, advocates setting all accountants in concrete and using them as traffic barricades and putting all joggers on a giant treadmill to generate electricity. Hope said he will take his duties seriously.