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I will never, ever forget the day my mother stood in front of me in complete frustration and shouted, "I hope that one day you have a daughter just like you".

Those words echo in my mind 25 years after she uttered them. My mother is gone now, taken by cancer, but the words she spoke were like a curse... or a blessing depending on whether you're me or not.

You see, I have a daughter who not only is my spitting image in looks, she is a mirror into the past of who I was as a child. She is all of the things I was, including smart, funny, loving .......and sometime recklessly strong willed.

She has a mind of her own and although she hears what I offer up as advice, she definitely will make her own decisions, my opinion not withstanding.

I remember so many things about my mother and I carried quite a chip on my shoulder into young adulthood because I felt that she never understood me. She never really knew who I was. Now, looking back, I completely understand where she was coming from and why she tried so hard to protect me from my often times misguided mind set. Phrases that she used that I convinced myself once upon a time were said through meanness, that I would repeat to my friends followed by "Can you believe she said that to me?" now make sense and I can put it into perspective because I find myself parroting some of her words to my own daughter.

I sat with my sister the other day and we laughed at the absurdity of our recollections. Now that we have children that are so precious to us that our hearts would simply stop beating if something terrible were to befall them, we have been able to let go of old hurts, instead sending our mother a prayer of thanks for imparting on us her wisdom, her love and most of for devoting so much of her life to keeping us safe.

I hope that I can do that for my daughter and whenever she gets herself worked up because she can't change my mind about that concert... that trip to Mexico.... or staying out all night with people I have never met, I find myself saying "I hope one day you have a daughter just like you." Then she will understand.

Learn more about this author, I. S. Turner.
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