Lydia Masombo and Patrick Doran are thrilled to announce the birth of their son O’Connell “Oak” Patrick Jabali Doran on Aug. 2, 2023. Little Oakie Doran was born on a bright and sunny August morning in Bellingham, Washington. Delivered at 37 weeks, the Mighty Oak weighed in at a whopping 8 pounds, 12 ounces and measured a height of 21 ½ inches. His mother, Lydia, was born and raised in Musakasa, Kenya, near the Ugandan border. O’Connell’s late maternal grandfather, Patrick Masombo, was a Ugandan man who took a Kenyan wife: Grandma Jane.
Coming from a sprawling but tight-knit family that rivals the Dorans in size, there are dozens of aunts, uncles and a plethora of cousins that eagerly wait to meet their American relation. Patrick Doran, O’Connell’s proud daddy, grew up in Twisp and swears that the night Oak was born the moon turned a fire red. Pat’s parents, Gretchen Dieringer and James Doran, are proud paternal grandparents overjoyed by the arrival of their first grandchild. The youngest Doran’s godmother and godfather are Methow Valley locals Emily Potter and Galen Hunt.
