Dearest Florence – You Are Fourteen!

Dearest Florence,

You are fourteen! I couldn’t have imagined, fourteen years ago, that this time would go so quickly. I couldn’t have imagined you being a teenager, being so grown up, being my friend as well as my daughter. If felt like you would always be little back then, and though to me you still are, you are also SO grown up. Grandad calls us Edina and Saffy. I think he’s just about right!

But though you are fourteen now you are still just that tiny baby who understood when I whispered “please let me have a moment today, I feel so poorly with this mastitis” and you slept. You are still that toddler who spilled orange juice on my bed and tried to clean it up by covering it in kitchen paper because you didn’t want to have done something bad and tried to make it better! You are still the little girl who danced on stage with her Daddy like a little flower fairy. You are still the one who hugged me and wouldn’t let me go on first weeks at school… You are still my baby, still my little’n’, still the person who showed me there was a love that I never even knew could exist it is so strong, you are also this incredibly gorgeously grown girl who is wise beyond her years. I love watching TV in bed with you, chatting on days out, laughing, driving you all over the place to your various things… You are so grown up now, but you are still oh so little to me!

How proud you make us, because you put so much effort and hard work into all you do, because you shine so brightly on the stage and at home. How lovely you are Flobo, our special girl! Happy birthday to you!

And 23.40, 14 years to the minute you were born!