Inheritance

My sister was visiting over the Thanksgiving week...it was so nice to see her since I don't usually see her during the holiday...we've always been close...not in proximity but in our thoughts...and via the telephone.

While she is older than me...three years older to be exact...I've always been the one that people think is the older one (do you know that when we were at the hospital visiting my husband the other day that a nurse thought my sister was my daughter...okay,okay,okay, I know she looks younger than me...but my daughter...that's it...I'm getting a facelift and having all my front teeth capped!)

I noticed that my sister not only has beautiful teeth...bright white and perfectly straight teeth...but my sister also has beautiful skin...very few wrinkles...I remember how she used to always have acne when she was an adolescent...I didn't inherit the acne...I had very dry skin...like my mom...my sister inherited my dad's oily skin...and while she complained when she was a teenager...now she is smiling...now as she ages she is happy...because oily skin has been good to her face.

As I looked at my sister and me...I realized that we both inherited some of the good and the bad from our parents...my dad gave me his skinny legs and his stomach (any extra pounds go straight to the stomach)...and my dry skin came from my mother's genes...and my sister...my sister got my mom's hips and thighs...and my dad's oily skin...but look how good she looks now at 53.

I thought a lot about all this inheritance...about the sense of style we both got from our mom...and I guess a little from our dad...and the sense of laughter that we both got from our dad...and I guess a little from our mom...and the determination we both got from our mom...and a little from our dad.

And as I thought about what I got from my parents...I wondered now that I'm almost 50...now that my kids are almost grown...I wonder what they will say they inherited from me...I wonder if they will be pleased when they are 50...if they will look back and be happy with the two halves that make them who they are...with a lot of themselves added in there as well...well time will tell...yes...time will tell...

Ooh, I hope they carry on the sense of style that I have tried to instill...and I hope they get the oily skin...so they are wrinkle-free...no ironing needed...but who knows by then...I bet there will be some new miracle cream that takes away all the wrinkles anyway.

Judi