Welcome to Flashback Friday!

I love old pictures.  My grandmother had a large stash of old sepia prints, and I remember as a child begging her to get them out and let me look through them.  She wouldn’t comply that often, and that would frustrate me a bit.  Now, though, I understand her hesitation.  For one, the pictures were mostly of people in her life who had passed on, some in tragic and sudden ways.  Looking at the pictures was an emotional roller coaster for her.  Secondly, it was sort of a hassle to lug all those books and boxes out of their storage places.  And, finally, they were fragile.  The last thing she wanted was for my grubby little hands to damage a one-of-a-kind heirloom picture.  I totally get it now.

Now, my mom, Indiana Mimi, has most of those pictures, and she’s been bringing me some of the old pictures as she’s been sifting through them.  After all, my hands are decidedly less grubby these days.

One thing that I’ve realized as she’s brought me some of these photographs is that Jack Henry definitely looks like me.  See…

Jack Henry…

Me…

Very, very similar.  Right down to how our hair lays down on our foreheads.

But do you know who he really looks like?  Who could have been his twin?  My Uncle Larry, Indiana Mimi’s younger brother, who died in his early twenties.  I’ve always been told that Dirty Harry looks a lot like him too.  Most of the pictures I’ve seen of him were taken when he was a school boy or a teenager, and Dirty Harry definitely favors him.  But my mom recently brought me a picture of him when he was a toddler that made me gasp.  Check this out…

My uncle…

And Jack Henry…

Isn’t that amazing?  Even the curls are in the same places!  And the foreheads….I wish I had this picture when we went to see the neurologist last fall.

Yes, Grandma….I do understand now why you felt bittersweet over your photos because this whole trip down memory lane has made me wish so much that you could see and know Jack Henry.  I think you’d be quite proud that he looks so much like your own precious little boy.

Do you have any look-alikes in your family?  If you’re not sure, take some time to paw through those old trunks in your attic or those dusty shoeboxes in your closet.  I think you’ll find a fascinating exercise in genetics.