4 generations - my grandmother, my mother (not too long before she died), myself and my daughter.
My elder daughter has been posting some gorgeous stuff on Facebook about mothers and daughters complete with photos (some of which I had taken, years ago)of mothers and daughters and grandmothers too.
It got me to thinking of mothers, spiritual mothers, sister mothers, friend mothers. The ones who've mothered me, the ones I try to mother.
For most of us, we never get over the loss of our mothers, the one who either birthed us or adopted us. We especially grieve when our own mothers die young, like mine did, and thus miss out on their own grandchildren. A sadness that never leaves us, try as we might.
Last night I caught my mother's tenderness in a black and white portrait of my daughter and her baby daughter I had taken many years ago. I had never noticed this before. Tears sprung to my eyes. Tears of joy. She lives on.
Apart from my two birth daughters, I have another daughter - a precious niece - who lost her mother while still a child. She now has her own daughter. This young niece is a delightful combination of her own mother, my deceased quick-witted sister-in-law, and my own fiery little mother. I am happy to see her own daughter is the head off her, as we say back home.
And most times I look in the mirror I see my maternal grandmother's face.
There's a powerful connection to the past in the faces of the young.
Eternal life is no lie.
beautiful post ♥
ReplyDeleteHear hear. Lovely thoughts, WWW.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of last night's viewing of a DVD of a concert held in 2002 in memory of George Harrison (Albert Hall in London) when George's son Dhani appeared with lots of his Dad's peers.
The likeness was uncanny.
Again, I saw some pics of celebs who attended the recent Kennedy Honors show in Washington (?) and Paul Mccartney's son James was pictured - such a creepy likeness to his Dad.
There's a powerful connection to the past in the faces of the young.
For sure!!
'Tis, lovely, true, sad, and happy. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love these old family photos, the similarities keep repeating down the generations.
ReplyDeleteIf we are lucky, we do, eventually, become our mothers. I'm extremely lucky as my mother was a mother worthy of emulation.
ReplyDeleteI try to break the chain, but find it is not always possible to do so.
ReplyDeleteI haven't got a very big family, so it tends to be friends I miss rather than relatives. Either friends I've lost touch with or friends who've died, sometimes much too young.
ReplyDelete'fiery little mother'. I loves it www, reminds me of me. I realised when I read this that you are one of my blog mothers {{{{{{WWW}}}. And we both have the Irish feistiness in us to connect us ;) xxx.
ReplyDeleteOh yes! Mother love is different. Often I see my mother (gone since 1983) in the expressions or actions of my 10 year old granddaughter. It can so uncanny that I almost believe my mother has been resurrected.
ReplyDeleteI'm so lucky. I still have my mother -- whose face I sometimes see in the mirror -- and I had my grandmother until my own children were mostly grown.
ReplyDeleteA very glam shot of you there WWW. How nice to have been so close to your mother though and feel the same about your daughter and niece.
ReplyDeleteI have a very small family and only get on with my distant cousins, alas, as the nearer ones are too bonkers and I fervently hope I will never take after them.