The beginning of 2019 Didn’t start off well. I had started a new job after being laid off for a year that I didn’t particularly like. I was experiencing severe depression; my anxiety was through the roof. Being a Type I diabetic, the added stress only complicated things even more. I was not in a good place. My work suffered, my health suffered, but most of all my relationship with my daughter suffered. I resigned from my job after a month as it wasn’t the right fit, and my mental health declined. One day my daughter L, asked me if she could try going to my sister and brother in law’s. I didn’t realize she was asking to stay with them for a while. Moving in with them became what I thought was a temporary thing until I got better. What I understood was only to be temporary; one month turned into three. Three into six. L refused to see me, and my sister wasn’t encouraging her to do so. I finally saw my daughter after my mother arranged for a covert dinner with both of us six months after L asked to leave. I began seeing L every couple of weeks, which then turned into once a week. We started talking on the phone, texting. COVID happened and we didn’t get to see each other for a few months until she needed me. My sister called one day and said she thought I might need to come and pick L up. L came to spend the weekend with me. The weekend turned into a month. A month of going to a friend’s camper, watching stranger things, a trip to South Dakota, and then a special bonding moment.
I wanted to do a special mother-daughter bonding activity given the year that L and I had. I have been a fan of Christi’s Grinkie Girls Facebook page and have always admired her work. I talked with Christi about doing a mother-daughter photoshoot, I wanted to do a pin-up look, while my daughter was more of an edgy punk kind of girl. What a blast L and I had! Christi and Lela were so great. The ideas and suggestions they came up with… phenomenal! The look on L’s face when she saw the pictures of herself was priceless and worth so much more than what I paid for our experience at Grinkie Girls. The confidence in L when she saw herself. She was edgy. She was punk. She was my wonderfully weird daughter. My pictures were just as gorgeous. I loved the confidence they gave me as well. I highly recommend this experience for mothers and daughters, sisters, friends. It was such a great feeling laughing and smiling and loving with my daughter on that magical Thursday. All of our pictures were outstanding, but if I have to choose, my favorite picture is one of the two of us laughing. Those are true authentic laughs. Living with a 15-year-old, those are hard to come by these days. Thank you, Christi, for capturing this one. This one will go down in the books.
