NATCHEZ — Minyon Brister said her contractions began as soon as she bent down to put the family’s turkey in the oven.

“The pain just started,” she said. “And I knew it was time.”

So with her stepfather at the wheel, and her mother by her side in the back seat, Brister and her family sped from their home in Woodville to Natchez Regional Hospital on Thanksgiving Day.

But they only got as far as Mammy’s Cupboard on U.S. 61 North when little Mykayla Jalyin Gaines came into the world in a speeding truck.

“That baby could not wait,” Lucy Brister, Minyon’s mother said.

“I pulled her jeans off and said ‘God give me strength,’” she said.

And by the time the jeans came off, Brister said, the baby’s head was already fully visable.

Brister said when the family left the house she thought she had a pretty good chance of making it to the hospital but that quickly changed.

“When my water-bag burst I knew the baby was coming,” she said.

And come she did.

Minyon’s mother said baby Gaines came out so fast they did not even pull over.

“She just came out,” she said.

And lucky for Brister the birth was quick; because of obvious reasons Brister had no epidural before the birth.

Brister said that her other three children were all born with epidurals.

“I was scared because I did not get the shot first,” she said. “But I just thank God my mother was there with me.”

Brister said if she had been in the hospital for the delivery she would have gotten an epidural, but she said labor without it was not so bad.

“You just have to keep pushing,” she said.

Brister said she was also surprised by her slapdash delivery because the baby was not due until Tuesday.

“She’s just a little surprise,” she said.

And even though Brister won’t be home to enjoy the turkey she started cooking, she and her family ended up with something much bigger to be thankful for this year — new life.