(no subject)
1991, a photo by chelejean on Flickr.
I remember this exact moment. When I was handed this beautiful baby girl with SO MUCH HAIR, and a face like an angel.
I remember taking her to Camp Snoopy (she thought that the dog itself was named "Camp Snoopy"), to the Ulta Beauty Store (she called that "The Woman Store"), going to her dance recital, watching lots of episodes of Barney the goddam purple dinosaur...heh...
And then came the big family falling out, and we couldn't see each other any more.
I missed this little girl every single day. I thought about her as often as I thought about my papa.. but in a way it was worse. I knew that papa was in Heaven (whatever you conceive that to be) so there would never BE the chance to see him again.
But this little girl was still here. We lived in the same area code, but we could never see each other.
I rarely even talked about it.. it just hurt too much.
Life goes on, though. My life got a little harder, then a LOT harder, then, finally, more wonderful than I'd ever imagined life could be.
And the little girl grew up and went to high school and started college and became an awesome young adult woman.
And then along came Facebook.
And the girl sent me - her Aunt Chele - a friend request.
On Friday, my niece and I ran towards each other in a Caribou parking lot, laughing and crying and jumping up and down and holding each other so tightly.. it seemed like we never would let go.
We talked and laughed and kept exclaiming "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING" and I'm sure the folks sitting near us wondered what the hell was going on.
I noticed right away that we have similar mannerisms. Similar phrasing in our sentences. It was like seeing my sister - and me - when WE were 19 years old.
But it was HER. My niece. My girl! That little baby I fell in love with in 1991. All grown up, and so very, very beautiful.
She's coming over for dinner soon. She's bringing her prom pictures (and every other picture she can think of).. and I owe her, what, 12? 13? years of dinners and coffees and cool, fun auntie times.
We have a lot to catch up on. Our future relationship starts now.
(PS - We'll take a picture.)
Ciao.