My daughter Allison went to a dance on friday night.

Since she was a small baby I have followed her around with a hairbrush.  In fact, when she was five she had this beautiful head of brown hair that she would not let me touch.  I sometimes used to sneak into her room with a hot curling iron and curl her hair for church when she was asleep. (*Warning….do not try this in a business setting, only professional Mothers can handle this task while breastfeeding the baby and soothing the two year old, at the same time as curling the sleeping five year olds hair)

When she started dating and going to parties we spent hours working on her hair, trying to come up with the perfect look. I was the hair fixer extraordinaire…With three little sisters I had plenty of practice braiding and curling as I grew up. The night of the 9-12 Tea Party, which I had spent months organizing, was her homecoming dance, and I almost cancelled the tea party when I realized the dance was the same night, so I could stay home to help fix her hair.  A beloved friend fixed it for that dance.

I asked her if Michelle was going to roll her hair for the dance and she said her friend Sierra wanted to do it.  I think I could have handled it better if we had kept this task in the family, something about a friend doing it made me feel sad.

I must admit, part of me wanted to just jump on a plane and fly out to Utah and spend hours helping her get ready for the dance.

But Sierra is a gifted girl and she came up with a beautiful french braid of curls that was a work of art.

When I saw the pictures I was reconciled, but must admit I cried a little bit because I wasn’t part of the fun.

Jenny Hatch