All around me are familiar faces...

I often see people who remind me so much of people I know that I find it quite unbelievable. Here are a couple examples...

I passed by a woman walking with her toddler and her mother down Connecticut Avenue. It was a nice day and the three were in no hurry to get to where ever they were going.

The mother strolled with her hands gently coupled behind her back. She was the picture of ease with her dark hair loosely resting on her shoulder blades and her white t-shirt tucked into her navy blue lounge pants.

The grandmother wore glasses and a large, straw summer hat. Her hair was white but had been dark brown or even black at one time. She was a foot or so shorter than her daughter so her stride was slightly quicker to keep up but she was certainly not in a hurry or struggling.

The toddler, whose legs were by far working the hardest, wore sandals and pants that were not long enough to reach the ankle but still below the knee and a cap that had certainly been put on by it's wearer from the off center placement. Not yet having mastered the art of walking at any pace, the little feet could not slow themselves down and had a hard time of pointing in the right direction and they soon failed the child. No worries; just a brief stumble and catch by the knees, a bit of assistance from mama and the feet were off and moving again.

When I saw this mother, I immediately thought of my Aunt Sheryl. The have the same hair, the same body shape and size, the same jaw line, but more than that is was how the mother walked gazing at everything around her but still catching her child as it fell. It seemed intrinsic and accidental all at the same time.

All of this happened within the span of some 10 seconds and was at least a year ago, but I still think of it often. How funny that our memory holds tight to certain things and others slip through quite unnoticed.

The other moment was much more recent and reminded me of another aunt, my Donnie.

There was a woman who came to the Inn this weekend to get some information and I couldn't stop staring at her. She looked so much like Donna! Her hair was longer & a bit reddish and her skin was a little darker, but they could have seriously been sisters. She even dressed in the same style that Donna does. I'm sure she thought I was completely strange for staring but I just couldn't help it...she was so pretty.