A very special person in my family, is my stepfather (my mother's second husband after she divorced my biological father). Why is he so special? Well, I never had a good relationship with my real dad. He was a violent man, and I've witnessed him abusing my mother more than once. It's quite traumatizing for children to see your mom getting hit by your father, especially since my brother and I were so young and didn't understand what was happening (I was 9 and my brother 7). Their divorce, when I was 10 years old, was a very happy occasion for us, and everyone felt relieved.

When I was 15, and my brother and I were living happily without a father figure, my mom met Philippe, my stepfather. We were extremely suspicious at first, because we saw this new man as a threat to our peaceful home. But he gained our trust, and treated us like we were his own from the start. He's quite eccentric and quite different from regular parents (he has tattoos, and piercings) an he made us smoke our first joint, so we would discover marijuana in a safe environment. I never told him that it wasn't my first time heheh but I thought that I had the coolest "dad" in the world in that moment. I had never felt like that before.

He always introduces me as his daughter, and just smiles at me when people mistakenly say that we look alike. I'm extremely happy that my mother finally found the love that she deserves, and that he is part of our family. He was the best gift for us.