About ten months ago, during what would be the last time I ever talked to her, my mom told me about a new book for pre-teen girls that she had heard about on TV. “Growing up these days is hard,” she said and suggested I get it for the girls. I would, I told her (the topic was right up my feminist alley) but I didn’t think much of it until a few days after the funeral, when I opened up their mailbox… and found the book inside. It turns out she had ordered it – likely to read herself and then to hand over to us – the night before their accident.

Opening that package remains one of my most bittersweet memories ever, and when I came home after the funeral I brought with me not only the book but the Amazon box it came in. Both book and box then sat on my shelf for many, many months (I wasn’t ready to read it) but a few months ago I read a little to the girls and then handed it over to Zoe to read on her own.

To me, The Confidence Code is a reminder of my mom’s love for her granddaughters and her desire for them to be confident and strong. And when I see Zoe reading it, as she did the other night, it makes me smile – not cry.

-M

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2019 at 3:57 pm and is filed under 100. Two kids - Jan-Dec 19. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.