Three Palatine tire shop managers become fathers together

NTB not only guarantees four new tires in an hour, now it can boast four babies in a couple of days.

Three managers at the National Tire & Battery in Palatine were ready to become fathers almost simultaneously.

Though she wasn't due until the end of the month, store manager Robert Arriaga's wife started the baby parade by delivering a daughter, Naheva, at 1:30 a.m. Thursday.

Service manager Dean Mavrianos' wife followed her lead by going into contractions early for a scheduled C-section delivery of twins at 5:30 a.m.

And assistant manager Harry Castillo's wife went into labor Thursday night, leaving workers expecting another baby any minute Friday. The three were busy comparing dilations and contractions throughout the night. Managers from other stores filled in for them while they were out.

"We knew they were going to be days or weeks apart," Mavrianos said, "but we didn't expect it to be the (nearly) same day."

Because the other fathers were out, Mavrianos had to go back to run the store just hours after his wife delivered his son Jon and daughter Marianthi at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The twins were so healthy they stayed in the regular nursery and didn't even need incubators.

The three managers have been working together on and off at different venues for about 15 years.

Asked why there was such an alignment, so to speak, of newborns, Mavrianos replied, "We don't have a clue. Just nature took its course that day."