Dooley Noted: 7/29/2016
My mother was the baby girl, the last born of her parents.
So was I.
As I heard her stories of growing up, I envisioned my uncles chasing and teasing her.
I also envisioned them looking out for her.
With such a distance between my sisters and me, I had more solo time with my mother than the other girls.
I found the similarities between us to grow the more time I spent with her.
As an overprotected baby girl, she could have shown me a life of dependence upon the protection of others.
Instead, she showed me how important it was to protect myself.
She knew what a tough world she brought me into.
And she wanted me to stand tall.
Even though she was a baby girl, she was the toughest woman I’d ever seen.
If people ever teased her, she held her own.
She never bothered getting offended. She didn’t give anyone that satisfaction.
She was everything I wanted to be in a grown-up: unshakeable.
Baby girls don’t have to get babied.
As we celebrate her birth today, I’m so happy she was a baby girl, just like me.
And I’m so proud, year after year, to represent the unshakeable quality a baby girl can harness with the right influence.
To my favorite baby girl, Mamacita, I love you so much.
I hope everyone on my page can wish you a happy birthday.
As always, it’s their call.
-Dr. Kathy Dooley
