GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Ray Lacey and his girlfriend, Susan Irvine, posed with their yet-unnamed baby girl, who was born at 5:55 yesterday morning at Queen's Medical Center. They were not expecting their child to be born until June 25 and were surprised she was born on Father's Day.

Dads’ extra
special day

The gift of new life greets
several men on Father's Day

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By Mary Vorsino
mvorsino@starbulletin.com

Victor Pedilla got the ultimate Father's Day gift.

His first child.

Evan Paul Pedilla was born at 4:21 a.m. yesterday at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, in time for Victor Pedilla to celebrate Father's Day as a father, with his father.

"What a gift! It's the greatest feeling," Pedilla said as he held back tears and looked at his black-haired, brown-eyed 7-pound, 8.7-ounce baby boy.

"(It was) a very emotional moment for my dad ... once he saw his grandson."

A grandson and a son, Victor Pedilla said, who will be instilled with "everything that I see in my dad."

For Pedilla, an eighth-grade math teacher at Ilima Intermediate School in Ewa Beach, becoming a father on Father's Day was "icing on the cake."

"It just makes it that much more special.

"(It's something) you can't express in words. It's all of the best feelings rolled into one. It's surreal."

Victor Pedilla and his wife, Leah, were expecting Evan Paul on Friday, when he was due.

Herb Hara and his wife, Charlene, were not expecting their daughter until July 3, their wedding anniversary. So, "daddy's girl born on Father's Day" was a surprise.

"I've been wanting a girl for the longest time," he said yesterday at Kapiolani Medical Center.

Their daughter, Shery-Ann Etsuko Michele Hara, arrived so early that they have not even had time to set up the furniture and toys they bought.

Herb Hara, 42, who wore his "Greatest Dad on Earth" T-shirt, a past Father's Day gift from his two sons, 12 and 15, laughed yesterday as he remembered the moment he first held his daughter.

"I was euphoric," he said. "You get this wave that just comes all over you. It's just fantastic."

Ray Lacey, 38, was not expecting his little one, who had not yet been named, until June 25.But she was born yesterday at Queen's Medical Center, weighing in at a healthy 6 pounds and measuring 19 inches. Lacey, who has three children ranging from 12 to 21, had to be reminded that it was Father's Day.

"Everybody was telling me ... (but) I didn't make the connection," he said. "I'm still surprised" that she was born on Father's Day, he said. "It hasn't hit me yet."