How Mirror Me Was Born

This book started with a phone call, not an outline.

It was November 2025, and my daughter, my second oldest, called to confirm Thanksgiving plans at her grandmother’s house. Partway through the conversation, she paused and said, “Mommy, I want to ask you something. I’m hoping you’ll be okay with it.” She’s been with her boyfriend for years now, a genuinely wonderful young man. She asked if she could spend Christmas with him and his family instead of with us.

It’s a small thing to type out.

It didn’t feel small.

What stayed with me wasn’t the request itself, I always knew this day would come. It was the care she took asking it. She knows how family-oriented I am, how much togetherness matters to me. She thought about my feelings before she made her plans. And this is my fire daughter. The one who calls things what they are, who doesn’t usually pause to soften an edge. In that moment, she set the fire down and led with heart instead.

I told her yes, of course, he’s her person now, and there will be more Christmases like this one. But after we hung up, I sat with it. I started thinking about how something in me had clearly imprinted itself on her, in a moment she didn’t even realize was doing it. And then I started thinking about my other daughters, and how each of them carries a different piece of me the same way, leaning into a different posture, reflecting a different side of who I am, out into their own lives.

That’s the whole book, really, before it had a plot. A piece of you goes out into the world in your children, whether you meant to put it there or not. Mirror Me.

Mirror Me launches February 2027