My daughter spent years avoiding dates and photographs because of the birthmark on her face. So when she brought home the man she planned to marry, I watched him closely. Dinner went perfectly until my daughter left the room. Then Graham leaned toward me and mentioned a deal I knew nothing about.
“Mom, those are the fancy plates.”
I looked down at the china in my hands.
“Yes.”
“We’re eating lasagna.”
“I know, dear.”
My daughter spent years avoiding dates and photographs because of the birthmark on her face.
Marissa stared at me from the kitchen doorway.
“Mari, your mother has been rearranging those plates for 20 minutes,” Henry said from my phone, where I had him on speaker. “Don’t interfere with the process.”
I glared at the screen.
“You were supposed to be here.”
“I know.”
“You were supposed to be here.”
Henry sounded genuinely miserable about it.
His work trip had run a day longer than expected, which meant the man my daughter intended to marry was coming to dinner for the first time while Henry was four hours away.
“I’ll meet him tomorrow,” he promised. “Properly.”
Henry sounded genuinely miserable about it.
Marissa checked the clock.
“He’s going to be here in 10 minutes.”
Then she touched one of the earrings she was wearing.
“Is this too much?”
“No,” I said. “You look beautiful.”
Marissa gave me a tiny smile.
“Thanks, Mom.”
Then the doorbell rang.
“He’s going to be here in 10 minutes.”
***
Marissa had been born with a dark reddish birthmark covering much of the left side of her face.
When she was little, she didn’t care.
At four, she once drew a picture of herself with a purple crayon covering half her face because, according to her, “purple is prettier than red.”
Marissa had been born with a dark reddish birthmark.
Then she started school.
Other children taught her to notice.
By seven, she had learned which side of the class picture she preferred standing on.
By 11, she knew how to tilt her face when someone pulled out a camera.
Other children taught her to notice.
At 14, she stopped letting me photograph her unless she approved the picture afterward.
And dating?
