genetic

I had a great idea and priceless fodder for today's blog post! I even hinted about how amazing it was going to be in a series of emails to my family on Wednesday. I had received something awesome in the mail from Mom, and I was psyched to build a post around it. I scanned documents, cropped and color corrected individual elements, and uploaded all of the photos to a draft which I entitled "September 6, 1972."  

Later that day I was emailing with Ellie to wonder if we should remind Beth that she'd missed her turn that day when a thought occurred to me: 

Sigh. Here is Ellie's righteous post about the glorious thing that mom had mailed to her favorite daughter and granddaughter.  Here is the glorious thing:

BUT.

There was a second, stealthy glorious thing in the envelope from mom! It was a newsletter from the hospital where my dad was born, where he worked all his life, and where he died. Mom's handwritten note told me to check out the back page of Hospital Hi-Lites, so I did. At first I gave it a cursory glance, looking for key words that would spark recognition. Hmmm. Nothing. So I went back and read every word of that last page. It was pretty boring yet weirdly riveting, mostly because I was expecting a big aha moment, which never came. The next day I emailed mom about it, confused about what I was supposed to find, and she clarified that I should look at the inside back page. I had it with me, for scanning and preparing the Glorious Blog Post as previously discussed. So I took another look 

and there we were

me and my dad

Me and my dad, September of 1970

I really can't stop staring at the photo. It is the very best thing ever, isn't it?

I know, I thought so too. Until the next day, when Ellie posted the photo below with the caption: "I guess it's genetic"

Clara and her Jidoo, summer of 2002

Glorious.