Resemblances

“It was fascinating the way children grew features, morphing in and out of their parents’ likenesses in genetic peakaboo.”

The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D
Nichole Bernier

Our dad died in November last year a few days before his 93rd birthday. He would have been 94 years old this year.

So 90 years ago (!) this picture was taken of him in on his 4th birthday (if I have counted the candles correctly).

 It is one of the few pictures we have of him as a young child.

Here is another one when I suppose he was about 1 year old.

Sometime in late summer of last year, my brother’s daughter gave birth to her second child, a boy.

This picture was from the invitation for his 1-year-old birthday party in September.

The second picture was taken with his sister for Halloween.




He has light hair and our dad did not, but aside from that, two of his great aunts (my sister and I) can really see a resemblance to our dad when he was that age. Or perhaps that is just what we want to see.

At any rate, it will be fascinating to see how his features morph as he grows – whether he will come to more and more resemble “our branch” of the tree or perhaps be a clever blend of all the different families that are in his genetic pool (and their gene pool is definitely interesting, including African ancestors, which is a topic for another time.)

We’ll just have to wait and see.

P.S. The sun has gone down here in south central Missouri on this Thanksgiving Day. I hope you all had a lovely day enjoying the company of friends or family, or both. We certainly did.

Starting Over

In the fall of 2011 we arranged for the city to plant a memorial tree—a tulip poplar— in the park, and the tree was planted in April 2012.  A few days later, another memorial tulip poplar was planted next to ours.

The man in whose memory that tree was planted was a prominent businessman in the town for many years. He was an elder at the church we attended for a while, but his attendance  record at services was dismal. When it came time to choose new elders or retain those already on the board, he was nominated again. At the business meeting, one of the congregation pointed out that he only attended services a couple of times a year (he was not at the business meeting) and needed to be replaced. He was reelected as an elder.

The fact that these two trees grew side by side was just an example of a powerful person in the community coming to the same end as a person with no power or influence whatsoever, which is where our son stood in the social strata of the town

That really isn’t important now I suppose, but what happened this year is that the tree next door to ours bloomed.

Which means our tree would have bloomed too, except our tree died.

Two years ago the tree almost blew over after a hard rain and strong winds. The city tied it to stake, and it seemed to be okay, but within a year it was obvious the tree was going die. When it finally fell over for good, there were no roots attached to the stump. 

The city replanted the tree this summer, and it has done quite well. 

 

We watered it through the heat of the summer. It has shot up and is already taller than my husband.

We got a taste of winter this week for a few days. There was a light dusting of snow one night – it reminded me of what it would look had powdered sugar been put in a strainer and then sifted over the ground -- and then perhaps an inch fell Wednesday night.

The new tree looks to be in good shape for the winter. Fingers crossed.

Fly like an eagle...

My birthday was last Wednesday, and I kept meaning to write something about that—especially after the wonderful day I had—but I seem to get derailed much more easily these days, and here it is a week and day later.

I had a lovely day. Several months ago, my dearly beloved asked me if I wanted to go to Rockbridge for lunch on my birthday. Rockbridge is rainbow trout and game ranch and is probably my favorite place to eat.

We rarely go though because he really dislikes driving there, and I don’t blame him for that. The drive takes a while. It’s 40 miles and change on a narrow two-lane road through the Ozark Hills. It is not a relaxing drive for the person who is driving. There are lots of unexpected twists and turns and hills, and turns on the hills – like the blueprint for a theme park roller coaster.

The woods are beautiful this time of year. The trout is delicious.

The river is wonderful.

But before we got there, we had an errand to run first. As we drove down the highway, just as we came even with our house, a bald eagle flew right over the car. We don’t see eagles very often, so that was a great visual gift.

Memories of birthdays tend to mush together as the years add up.  I know I couldn’t tell you what I did last year for my birthday… but I do remember very vividly the birthday I celebrated 10 years ago in Los Angeles. It was the last birthday that I celebrated with my mom.

I already wrote about it here so I won’t go over it again.

But I was looking at the pictures I took on that vacation, remembering my mom and the laughter and good time we had with the family, and the one of my dad putting together my birthday dessert really hit home. He frequently went around without a shirt, so I doubt a day went by that I didn’t see the “screaming eagle” tattoo that was so popular during WWII.

Seeing the eagle last Wednesday was a lovely reminder of him.