ARLINGTON — When little Declan Hartman was born to mom Jillian and dad Nathan in Cascade Valley Hospital at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 24, he was continuing a family tradition that extends across at least four generations.

Barely a month more than 30 years before, Jillian Hartman herself (then Jillian Willett) was born on June 25, 1982, also in Cascade Valley Hospital. Nearly three decades before that, Jillian’s father, Guy Willett, was born in Cascade Valley Hospital on May 25, 1956, two years before a new facility was built for the hospital. Almost two decades before that, Guy’s mother, Maridee Willett, was born in the original Cascade Valley Hospital building in 1938.

“My mom’s mom moved here when she was only 2 years old,” Guy Willett said. “My dad’s side of the family were pioneers in this area.”

While Maridee was not able to stop by and visit her great-grandson in the hospital in person, Declan’s grandparents were there to greet the 8-pound, 20-inch newborn on Wednesday, July 25, as Jillian recuperated comfortably.

“He’s been real peaceful,” Jillian Hartman said. “He’s been sleeping good and eating good. We haven’t gotten a ton of sleep lately, but we’re all good,” she laughed.

“I was crying, I was so overwhelmed,” Nathan Hartman said.

Declan arrived a week and a half early, but Jillian nonetheless remarked upon how big he was and how relatively easy the delivery was for her.

“Look at how strong he is,” Jillian told Nathan, as Declan squirmed in her arms. “He’s trying to hold his head up.”

Guy Willett admitted that the idea of being a grandparent hadn’t quite sunk in yet, but he agreed that his grandson was “just perfect.”

The Willetts and Hartmans acknowledged how unusual it is for four generations of a family to be born at the same hospital, but attributed it to their strong community ties. Guy Willett is president of Hansen Willett Excavating Inc. in Arlington, and has lived in town his whole life, while Nathan and Jillian Hartman returned to their hometown of Arlington because that’s where they wanted to start their own family. Both Nathan and Jillian serve as youth pastors at the Arlington Assembly of God Church.

“This has been an amazing experience,” Jillian Hartman said of her care at Cascade Valley Hospital. “All the nurses have been so sweet and knowledgeable and caring, and our doctors have been great. We live so close by that we wanted to come to Cascade.”