Friday, November 30, 2012

Gordie Boy: "And the winner is..."

My younger son Paul, age 38, saw the family resemblance immediately and he wasn't joking. "That's very interesting," he said. I wasn't overjoyed.

Recently I've been studying old photos of people on both sides of my family and, as is often the case, I spent time looking for any resemblance to me - to see if I belong, to determine where I fit in, to see why my hair goes off in all directions after it reaches a certain length - but until this morning I've come up short.

I feel I don't look like my parents, though my posture is said to be similar to my father's. I'm sure I don't look like my grandparents. And I have only a few pictures of one of my many great-grandparents, so chasing down that trail has been fruitless as well. "Who do I look like?" has been unanswered for years!

A few hours ago, however, I examined a rare photo of a group of people on the front porch of a log cabin in Hatchley, Ontario, circa 1945. The woman second from the left is Aunt Tharon Malcolm Moore and the woman in the middle is my great-grandmother Lydia Jane Gordon.


Tharon's nose caught my eye. Very straight, very unlike my own. I don't look like her.

Then I looked at Lydia's general appearance.


Her hair goes off in all directions. She has a familiar twinkle in her eye. Her forehead looks similar to mine and - GOOD GRIEF - her nose is just like mine!


I think if you put glasses on the old girl and picture me forty years from now you'll think what I do. Lydia and I could be twins.

"That's very interesting," my son said when I showed him the photos. As I said, I'm not overjoyed, but I do hope I have Lydia's genes. She lived to be 105.

Score another one for Gordie Boy

Photos by GH

***

Will you still love me when I'm 105?

Please click here for more about Gordie Boy

 




No comments: