I LEARNED TO BRAID HAIR FROM A VIDEO

Dear Delyara, My wife moved out six weeks ago. Tonight my seven-year-old daughter stood between my knees while I tried to braid her hair for school picture day. I watched the same tutorial four times. My fingers kept losing one section, and the braid leaned sideways like it was trying to escape her head. She looked at herself in the mirror and said, “Mommy does it tighter.” I said, “I know.” Then she asked, “Is Mommy better at everything because she’s a girl?” I had to turn her chair around so she wouldn’t see my face. I told her no. I told her people become good at things because they practice. I told her I would practice every night until I could make the braid exactly the way she liked it. She hugged me and said, “You’re already good at pancakes.” After she fell asleep, I sat on the bathroom floor holding three pink hair ties in my palm. I don’t know how to raise a daughter while quietly grieving the woman who taught me how to be her father.