Like a Butterfly

As part of What Businesswomen Want Series, we publish a story by KLS Fuerte, the story of a daughter who gifted her mother the Delance Watch.

We were at the London Embassy of The Netherlands, where Sovereign Magazine was launching the Dutch Edition, when I’ve met a group of amazing women from the Powerful Businesswomen’s Club. Giselle Rufer, one of the members of the Club from Switzerland travelled to London to share her story. After she left the stage, I felt so privileged to be able to have a short conversation with her. We chatted about my book journey and how my mother, all the way in Guadeloupe had read her story in Sovereign Magazine, but also fell in love with the beautiful green watch on the back cover. Giselle listened attentively and seemed to take in every word very carefully. She asked me questions about my mother, as my mother was a big celebrity and I could see, on her dreamy look, that she was trying to picture my mother.  On reflection, I think she was designing my mother’s watch in her mind already…

Just like Giselle, my mother lost her father too early in her life, in fact, her father died in a tragic jeep accident, before she was born.

My mother, Elizabeth, came to this world without a father. She never experienced the presence of her father in her life, she does not know what it feels like to have a “dad” and she will never know. She had no choice but loving him in his absence.

Her whole life, she has been searching for this father figure, this feeling of being protected by a strong man, and this gap, as she told me yesterday, it will never close. She never sat me down and said: “You must be strong in life”, instead, she was the definition of strength, in her body and soul, and I saw that every day I spent with her.

Watching her re-inventing herself time after times, I became the woman I am today.

When I have felt low, she was there, even from a distance. My mother is like a star, even when you don’t see her, you know she is there, guiding you with her own light.

I have always dreamt of writing and wanted to write, but my mother made it possible. She laid the first brick to build that dream. She spread her stardust onto me without even knowing it. The trust she has in me is disarming. Before my first book was published, she simply helped, without questioning my decisions and with that my mother Elizabeth gave me the wings to write. For the whole summer that year, she babysat my children so I can write non-stop for 4 weeks. The love she gives is endless, timeless, and I struggled to say “thank you” to her, for all the stardust she covers us with. As she has now left Paris to return to Guadeloupe, we miss her a lot, but we know she is never too far, she is a star.

My Mother missed the love and strength of a father, but she transformed this gap into a deep love for her children.

My mother was at her home in Guadeloupe when she read Sovereign Magazine. She was so proud to read about me in the magazines, she was over the Moon! She loved every word and perhaps, if you ask her, she knows it by heart! But then, she read Giselle’ story who was featured in the same edition, and saw the green watch, covered in diamonds, stunningly unleashing its beauty on the back cover.

What seemed to be a casual comment with the WhatsApp picture of the watch she sent me, simply saying “I LOVE it”. My mother was instantly and positively smitten with the Delance Watch.

That was an eureka moment! On reflection, the hundreds of personal gifts I received from her and made me feel loved beyond measure, a love that encouraged me to embrace my authenticity that family, colleagues or friends otherwise wouldn’t see, a love that guided me through storm and sunshine.

Mom always comes first. That’s the rule. I can’t buy my mother’s love—I already have it! but I can say that, finally, I found something that I always felt, my mother’s feminine power and something that she always was searching for… This watch will re-connect her with her father, a man she never met, but she inherited his strength and determination to succeed in life.

A nostalgic and powerful story is written from the moment my mother’s watch was designed, travelled to her home in Guadeloupe, from Switzerland via London, and treasured until the very last day is lived. Once on my mother’s wrist, this watch will find its way back into the secret pulse of mother- daughter never ending love. Rich with sentiment, this watch is personalized in meaningful ways to honour our bond and be passed down from generation to generation as an heirloom from the heart.