Blog 2669- 02.18.2023

Little Princesses

My mom and dad had two sons eighteen months apart. Before I was born, according to my birth certificate, my mother had twin boys who died shortly after they were born. After my brother Robert was born my Mom had her tubes tied therefore she and my daddy never got to have their little girl nor my brother and I, a little sister. Mom was in some ways a harsh mistress like the moon in Josh Groban’s song, my karaoke version attached. My dad too was rougher than he would have been had a little princess always reigned in our home.

On July 15th, 1980 I became a father for the first time and my little girl, Emily Elaine White, taught me far more than I ever taught her about loving and life. Like most men I wanted a son and ten years later Jonathan David James Wallace White came along to make that dream come true too. There is special bond between a mother and her son and it is paralleled in the relationship between a father and his daughter.

I am forever glad and grateful that my daughter came first. She made me a more loving dad than I ever dreamed I could be. I am far from perfect, yet she helped me and still does, ten plus years after her death, want to allow my highest and best self to shine.

When I was about ten years old my mother started keeping my baby cousin, Deardra, while her mother Judy worked outside the home. Deardra was the only child of my mother’s youngest brother Richard. who drowned at seventeen and never got to see nor hold his baby girl. Deardra’s time in our home was such a delight and I heard my mama somewhat begrudgingly express a little regret at not giving my daddy the little girl he always wanted. My mom like so many of us did not love herself enough so she was at times a harsh and demanding mistress. She had to be the queen bee and there could be no princesses vying for love and attention in her realm. Mom’s siblings consisted of four brothers and three sisters. Except for Deardra’s brief stay, another baby girl cousin that Mom watched a few years later, Stacey, and a little girl neighbor named Lisa that Mom kept for a while, we had no princesses to worship in our home. I think mama liked it better that way. But I am also inclined to agree with Maurice Chevalier’s song, “Thank Heaven For Little Girls.” I think every home and kingdom ought to have not just a queen but a princess too.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rzi8Ai3IEhylf6H6EjYXGMW2yQ9wg6Nb/view?usp=drivesdk

The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress