Mama’s Girl

So I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about one of the most important people in my life on her birthday, my Mummy (pronounced as a Jamaican would say it and not as a Brit). Today’s Ma Duke’s birthday and as she gracefully turns 54, I am so blessed to know her and so very blessed to be her child.

Mother-Daughter relationships can be quite tricky. You spend part of your life wanting to be just like her and the other part wanting to be nothing like her. It always makes me chuckle when one of my relatives is like, “…you get that from your mother…” because as much as I may or may not want to be your mother, someday we will grow up to be at least somewhat like her.

They say mother’s raise their daughters and worship their sons. I won’t refute that, I mos def think that as a mother, you have to infuse a certain set of standards to ensure that your daughter has a successful progression into womanhood; and regardless of the good, the bad, and the ugly there is not much I’d change about the way I grew up. When I close my eyes at night I know that there is one person out there for sure, that regardless, loves me no matter what.

People tease me because at 26 there are a few decisions that I won’t make without getting counsel from my mom. She may live hundreds of miles away, but you’ve got to trust the advice of a woman that moved to the United States 33 years ago at the young age of 21 and is still here to tell the story. And while we’re currently beefing over my desire to get my nose pierced (I say I’m a free spirit, she says I’m a professional) I know that she would never lead me astray.
She is the only person that I call at 6:30 a.m. and ask her to pray with me and with no questions asked, she leads the spiritual charge for her baby girl.

As I begin to think about what kind of mother I’ll be, I know that I want my daughter to still curl up next to me at 26, the way I still curl up next to my mama. I want to fondle her hair the way my mom fondles my afro puff. And as we lay their quietly I want her to know that I’m her Mummy and that she’s Mama’s girl.

Happy Birthday!!

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