Primping for Prom: A Family Affair

It's prom season. Time to trade in the sweatpants, jeans, T-shirts, flats and athletic gear for a pretty dress or a stylish tuxedo.

Patch had the pleasure of documenting local student  Qieyana Lewis' transformation from a typical high school senior into a radiant prom queen. Lewis, 17, of Greenbelt, began her metamorphosis with a manicure and pedicure at the in Greenway Center.

Her parents, LaTalya Palmer Lewis and Marlon Lewis, along with her aunt, Venus Palmer, of New York City, accompanied her on a whirlwind schedule of stops on her to-do list leading up to her departure from the Hanover apartments, where she met her date and four other couples bound for prom in Baltimore, Maryland on May 20.

"It's my daughter's prom day. I'm in shock," LaTalya Palmer Lewis said quietly.

Her husband, Marlon, said that he felt proud and very fortunate to be in his daughter's life — that graduating from high school is a big accomplishment. Upon seeing his daughter exit the car after her makeup session, he said that he expected her to look beautiful.

"But she was beautiful beyond my expectations," he said. "She looked surreal. It was a really beautiful moment."