I met my best friend at a place I worked for several years. She is several years younger than me, but is quickly catching up. When we worked together she didn't have any children and I had only the two. I would come to work and describe to her the joys and sometimes mentally exhausting task motherhood. She particularly loved the stories I would tell about the highs and lows of having a daughter. She would laugh at my tales and say.... "Oh, Jaquetta, that is so funny." Well some of it wasn't so funny at the time. It just so happens she delivered her beautiful daughter on my youngest son's birthday. That's the day I officially became Aunt JacJac, the closest I would ever be to being a real aunt. Everyone around us thought we had been planned for our kids to share the same birthday (as if we have that much power), but it was merely one of the odd happenstances of life. At first she had the typical fantasies of motherhood... "I will not have dirty bottles laying around the house. My kids faces won't be dirty." I'd just smile knowing some of that stuff just falls by the wayside when the grand event actually happens and you're holding a feisty strong willed child in your arms. As her daughter grew, I was the one snickering at her tales of raising a daughter. Daughters are sugar and spice and everything nice, except when they're not. Daughters are the serendipity of the home, making life interesting with their unique ability to be emotionally over the top at any given second. I'd like to say they grow out of it, but as I sit here in my mid-life splendor, I assure you that I can still turn on an emotional dime in a New York nanno second. ... It's a girl thing (we're all born a little bipolar). Yesterday my son turned 18, and her daughter turned 16. I stopped by her house on the way home to give her a gift and to wish her Happy Sweet 16. As always the house was abustle with family. I made my way over to Grandmother who I hadn't seen in forever (dang she looked good). When I turned around, a vision of loveliness stood in front of me with hair perfectly coiffed, lipstick a deep shade of red, and with the whole smokey eye thing totally going on. Aunt JacJac's little girl was growing up and she was beautiful. I've always thought she looked just like her Daddy, but yesterday she was the spittin image of her mother who is an exact replica of an angle (I'm not even kidding). My heart did a little back flip as I gave her a bear hug and a half. Her mom asked me if I'd like to make a speech to her and her boyfriend before I left the house.... "Yes! Be sweet. Keep everything tucked in and zipped up. No gyrating until you have a marriage gyrating licence, and of course have a ton of fun." I'm so proud of the woman she is growing into. I'm proud of her mother who constantly frets about being a good mother and if she's doing right. She is a great mother as is evidence by her great kids. I'm especially blessed to have the opportunity to see her grow up. Yes, raising girls may not always be serendipity and smiles, but the results are always worth it. Happy Sweet 16 Alicia. May you continue to evolve into everything God created you to be.... A blessing to everyone who comes in contact with you. I love you high as the sky and my best wishes for you are more numerous than the grains of sand on all the beaches of earth. Love, Aunt JacJac
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