bridget ·
[[writing]]
A story about my dad.
I had just had my first child, a girl. We lived just south of the city of Chicago. My father was visiting. We were Minnesota natives and in Chicago for my husband's job.
Dad was sitting in our living room reading the Chicago Times and there was a story marking the anniversary of a terrible event that happened in 1966. A man had entered a house in Chicago where several young women were living and killed eight of them methodically, one my one.
He looked up from the paper with his reading glasses on, I remember it vividly, and said "That would not have happened to any of my girls." He had 4 daughters, myself and three sisters.
I can't convey how important that moment was. It helped me recognize that Dad not only believed in my strength as a woman, but nurtured it. Victimhood was not a part of my belief system as a woman from that moment forward.
It's important for a girl to know that her father believes in her strength. It doesn't mean she doesn't also need to feel protected by him, that's important too. They can co-exist.