Dear Grace,
Today you’re nineteen. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I love being your mother more every year. This year was full of transition and more than a few challenges. You weathered a strange senior year with a lot of covid restrictions (“jail” is an analogy I heard a lot). You spent several days quarantining alone an hour away from home when you had covid and it was during those days that you hear from most of the colleges you’d applied to. You showed grit I’ve never seen before and it made me so very proud.
Over the summer you worked two jobs and it was probably more than you’d have chosen but you did it. Then, the start of college was tough when you were randomly placed on the secondary campus which is a 15 minute drive away. But you figured out a way to advocate for yourself and after Dad found a senior housing dean you took it upon yourself to meet with him and to make your case. You got moved to the main campus.
It is a sheer joy to watch you fly, Grace. You have maturity and poise and a very good sense of what matters. You call your grandmothers every couple of weeks. You write thank you notes. You look people in the eye. You are organized and hard working and your executive function is off the charts. You’re still figuring out what your one guiding passion is and our conversations about this remind me of mine with my father when I was your age.
My amazing Grace – thank you for making me a mother all those years ago. I adore you and I couldn’t possibly be prouder of you. I’m so glad I can spend today with you.
Happy 19, GBP.
Motherhood often feels like a bundle of joy and endless worries. My daughter also got Covid. She’s 29 and was miles away in Breckenridge, Colorado in a small on campus apartment at Colorado Mountain College. I was so worried about her but the state of Colorado did a wonderful job calling her each morning to see if she needed food, meds and checked in on her to see how she was doing. Let’s hope America finds her compass once again because this past year has been a nightmare and it’s not only Covid that frightens me regarding our children’s future. The list is too long for a blog comment.