I want a place for ritual in my daughter’s life, so together we created one | Jackie Bailey

Ellie wanted a high tea. We picked a sunny afternoon in spring, not long before her 12th birthday When I was about 12, I had my confirmation. I wore the same lacy white dress my terminally ill sister had worn two years earlier, with a red sash I had screen-printed at my Catholic school with a dove, symbolising the Holy Spirit. Typically, a child picks a saint’s name as their confirmation name, someone they would most like to emulate. I was permitted to take the name of someone who was still a...

By Jackie Bailey