Fatima Faruq didn’t go to her high school senior prom. She had a new son back then, 18 years ago, and was focused on saving money for what would be her first apartment.
Now, her son, Nassir Al-Faruq, is a high school senior. In recent months, as his own prom neared, he thought about the sacrifice his mother had made by missing out on that high school rite of passage.
And he decided to right the wrong.
“He came to me and said, ‘Would you like to go to the prom with me? I think it would be dope. I think you deserve it,’ ” Faruq, 36, recalled.
She briefly wondered whether he would follow through when spring rolled around. It turns out, she said, “he was dead serious.” She told him she’d be delighted.