Hour 18, Christmas in July

While driving my daughter to school in the early morning hours of a freezing November day, in a grave tone of voice she quietly said to me “Mom, we need to talk.” I shot a look at her in the passenger side seat, and seeing her serious and frightened face, with a sinking feeling I knew what she was going to say. I mouthed the words to her “Are you pregnant?” and she slowly raised her index finger up and touched it to her nose. Though only seventeen when she gave birth, she would from the very beginning be an excellent mother to her baby boy, Leon. She enrolled in her high school’s online program so that she could graduate with her class and still parent her son, and in a high school work study internship for students interested in either nursing or teaching. She excelled in all while still caring for her growing little boy, born the 25th of July, a Leo birth sign for our little lion man, not only our Christmas in July gift, but by pure chance with a name that spelled backward the Christmas word “Noel.”

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