Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

The real work of motherhood begins when the day you never dreamed off arrives. For me, it was this week. I have been holding on to my daughter being my first baby for so long that I secretly refused to see her as the teenager she was becoming. I have been in denial since I first saw her like a mini lady, my mini me, then there was the 7th grade dance with boys that almost made me loose my mind, until she made up her mind and said boys were just as silly as can be. Still we held on to our baby for as long as time would allow. We dreaded sleepovers and summer camps and every daily question that ended with but why. She continued to grow, we continue to follow her footsteps closely as if they were our own until her steps became faster than our own and soon the day for her very own cellphone arrived and I tried to deny that my baby was no longer a baby, tried to hold out for a hug, a kiss, anything that would remind me of the Belle I once discovered on the streets of Paris years ago, only we are in the future and she is no longer a baby and we are left walking into each day, hand in hand, trusting, knowing…