Bridget Marie

“I know all about life having unpredictable, heartbreaking, and thrilling moments. But still, I feel unprepared for this life I am living. No one prepares you for loss and fear of loss, no one tells you how to hold sorrow while juggling accomplishments and dreams and worries and memories and what-ifs and maybes and guilt and hope and pride and motherhood and singleness and independence and faith and doubt all at once. Make it look like a practiced juggling act.”
― Renée Watson, skin & bones: a novel

“She called Malcolm Daddy and Paige told her, He’s not your real daddy, emphasis on real. Aaliyah said, He’s going to marry my momma one day, so soon he will be my real daddy. But anyway, his love for me is real, like a daddy’s love should be, so that’s why I call him Daddy now. I don’t have to wait till the wedding.”
― Renée Watson, skin & bones: a novel

“None of us survive childhood unscathed. When Aaliyah looks back on these days, yes, she might remember these painful moments, but I believe she’ll remember all the days you showed up for her, that you kept loving her, that you kept on persevering for her—for yourself. The best way you knew how. If you believe you’re passing down your shortcomings and burdens to her, doesn’t that mean she’s inheriting the best parts of you too? She’ll have to decide what to let go of, what to keep.”
― Renée Watson, skin & bones: a novel