Sorry to anyone over the age of 45, but I’ll be writing about snapchat for a moment…

You know the filter thingo where you can slide to the left and relive the glorious youthful face you used to own in your 20’s, and then slide to the right and see what life has to offer your face in the future? Well, not so long ago, I did that, and what I saw as I slid to the right took my breath away.  Staring right back at me was the image of my mother.

Sometimes when people die, well meaning people say that “they live on in you”. Well, it seems that my mum, who died almost 12 years ago, continues to live on… on my face.

This picture means nothing to those who didn’t know mum, but for those who did… here is “Mel-Rae“. Thanks for freaking me out Snapchat. I’d like to think that I’d sort that hair situation out a little better… but wow.

As a child I used to roll my eyes and die a little on my insides when people told me I looked like my mum. When you’re 12 years old and you get told that you look like your 45 year old mother, it’s a hard pill to swallow. Probably slightly better than being told you look like your father though…

Funnily enough, not that long ago Scarlett was told the same fateful line…”Oh, you look like your mum”. As Scarlett glanced over to me with a look I can only describe as horror, I felt her pain all the way to my inner core. I empathised and apologised for the torment I saw so clearly in her eyes. I knew exactly what she was thinking. “Why do I have to look like you?”

Fair enough, I’m no oil painting, but besides that, even if your mum is the most beautiful woman on the planet, no one wants to look like their mum when they are hitting puberty. Tween-dom is an age when you’re breaking away a little bit from your mum and trying to figure out who you are aside from her. You don’t want to be running around with your mothers face on your head when all you’re trying to do is pretend you don’t even have a mother. Or at least that’s how I felt for a few years, and I’m certain Scarlett feels this way too. Some days I embarrass her by just breathing it seems.

It’s a gift. Tweens are fun.

Now that I’m older and wiser and far from my younger years when I yearned to be an independent “woman of the world”, I’d give anything to be standing next to my mum while some well meaning person told me how much I looked like her.

Especially today… her birthday.

I also hope I inherited more of her traits than just her face. Unfortunately I missed out on her patience and ladylike language.

Good mums are so very special. No matter if you look like them or not…whether they gave birth you…or even if the “mum” in your life isn’t even a mum. Hug them tight.

Thankful for beautiful memories.

Forever 67.

M