When I turned 55, I couldn’t help but feel a lot of different things. It was Emily, my stepdaughter, who shocked me with a brand-new car. But what she had hidden in the glove box would change our relationship for good.
It was hard for me to find my place in Emily’s life as her stepmother. I married Emily’s dad, David, when she was only 12, so I knew it would be hard to win her over. No matter how hard I tried, Emily always kept me at a distance, and I felt like I didn’t belong in her life.
David died in a terrible car accident, leaving Emily and me to handle our troubled relationship on our own. I always hoped that we could become more than just stepmother and granddaughter. But it seemed like Emily was getting farther away from me as the years went by.
That was until Emily shocked me with the car and a thought that would change everything on my 55th birthday. When I opened the glove box, I saw a stack of Emily’s old drawings from when she was a kid. They showed our little family and called me “Mom.” They were basic but moving.
I felt like someone had punched me in the gut at that very moment. For all these years, I thought Emily only saw me as her stepmother and didn’t mind having me around. But these pictures showed that she had always loved me and seen me as her mom.
Emily and I tightly hugged each other while we both laughed and cried. I really felt like Emily’s mom for the first time.
At that moment, I understood that our relationship had been tough, but it wasn’t impossible. But Emily’s thoughtful gift was what brought us together. We had both been having our own fears and doubts. I knew our relationship would never be the same again as we talked and laughed together the rest of the night.
