Look Alikes

Oscar Odum

My cousin posted pictures of my oldest uncle on Facebook.  He was celebrating his 96^th birthday with a big party.  In the photograph, he looks so much like my dad that looking at the pictures made me cry.  I cherish my dad’s brothers and sisters who are all still living.  They remind me of where I came from and who I am.  They also remind me of my father because I see Daddy in their eyes.    I always loved my Daddy's eyes because the Odums have blue eyes.  My brother, sister and I all have our mom's brown eyes.

Jim Odum with his son-in-law, Jerry; grandson-in-law,
Todd; and great-grandson, Turner

All of my mom’s brothers and sisters are gone since she was the baby of the family.  Her two older brothers died two years apart in the 1980's.  Her two older sisters died in 2011 within two weeks of one another.  Due to my mom's advanced dementia, we were not able to communicate to her that her dear sisters had passed away.  My mom passed away about a year later.

Cousin Margoline with Aunt Ruby

Last year I went to Alabama with my Aunt Ruby (Remember my Aunt Ruby?  She is one of my Daddy’s sisters and was married to one of my mom’s brothers.  Got it?)  Aunt Ruby and I took a road trip to Alabama to visit the cemetery where my mom's mother and father are buried.  Since it was the annual cemetery decoration day, we met several of our mother's family.  Afterwards, we had lunch with my mom’s cousin.  Although I had not seen her since I was a small child, I knew who she was immediately.  My eyes filled up with tears when I saw her because she looks so much like my mom.

Gladys Odum

Cousin Margoline started laughing when I got out of the car.  She said she would have known me anywhere because I look like Gladys, my Mama.  That got me thinking about how we are connected to family.  Yes, by blood and experiences but also by the shape of our face and the color of our eyes.  There is something familiar, loving and safe about the faces of family.  We are drawn to those familiar faces in a way that is inexplicable.  Our look-alike faces connect one generation to another.

I recently updated my profile picture on Facebook. Immediately my niece commented that she thinks I look like Granny.  I have never really thought I looked like my mom and, frankly, never wanted to look like my mother.  But now that she is gone, I am proud that the color of her eyes and some of her facial features continue in me.

My two daughters look like me.  People tell me that all the time.  I am sure it is something that they cannot yet appreciate.  If they look like me and I look like my mom and my mom looked like her mom, well, how cool is that?  We are family and that is how it is supposed to be.