Your own body reminding you of lost loved ones

My late BIL, who was very close to his mother, my MIL, said that when talking to my DD, he could see his mother looking back.

Rozzy here is the Hardy poem. I read it recently.

Not things that I see but more objects that remind me of people that I’ve lost. When I make green tea I remember my friend who taught Chinese pupils and told me to use water not quite boiling. Also when I use the mug I bought when she took me to Battle. I bought an Oreck vacuum cleaner decades ago. A friend of my daughters saw it and said jokingly ‘that’s a very modern looking vacuum ’. He died last year and whenever I see it I think of him and I get that awful empty feeling. I hadn’t seen him since my daughter left school so, to me, he will always be 17.

Thank you Macaydia ❣️

You knew Isla71 that is exactly what he would have loved, especially as a mechanical engineer.

I can't post a photto here.

I only have to look at my youngest, 34 years old, to see my dad in his younger years. Peas in a pod.

My mum was thrilled to bits when my eldest son inherited her lovely hazel eyes. Me and DH have blue eyes so my son’s beautiful eyes are a constant reminder of my lovely mum.

What a lovely thought

My sister and I were very much alike though she was much older than me - we were often taken for mother and daughter. Sometimes I see her staring back at me in the mirror. I see my mother in DD. What brings a lump to my throat, though, is the resemblance between my 19 year old GS now and photos of DH when we started going out together. He was 24 then and the resemblance is so striking.

Lallylou

I quite agree yes, find the next generation reminding me of my relatives. My grand daughter walks just like my son who walks like is father. They often make a fist when they walk in a hurry. 🌹

I love this, my granddaughter sleeps with her face resting on her hands like my late mum. I look down at my hand’s now and they are my mum’s hands. I have facial expressions that remind me of my mum and I sometimes will utter phrases that my late father would use. All these things bring comfort and invoke precious memories.

I have my mother's hands. She was an Irish farmer's daughter so had to do lots of chores. But I have inherited her large strong hands.

Absolutely, I reallylove the reminders of ancestors, some of whom I never met...I am, apparently, just like my paternal grandfather in character and mannerisms, a fact that I find very comforting. When I cough, I sound just like my mother. Yes, these traits are passed on subliminally.

In my family we have a grin which goes back to great grandmother and the 1850s. Even the little grandchildren in OZ have it and they are 4!

It has been a joy reading all the lovely replies. Thank you

I feel my mother's presence all the time. It's as though she is still comforting and looking after me.
I seemed to have internalised her spirit in some way.

It doesn't feel frightening, overwhelming or weird. But very grounded. And gives me more strength when l needs it.

My mother adored me and l loved her very much. She was great and also gave me lots of space to develop into my own person and be happy..I couldn't have asked for more.

Whatever form you still see or feel your loved ones in or about is really a lasting gift from them.

Not everybody has this. So we are lucky if we do.

😻
XXX

cc

I see some of my mother in my own face.

Oh, definitely. But then, some of me, in my son...

I caught sight of myself while walking past a mirror last week and saw my father looking back at me. People have always remarked how much I resemble him but this is the first time I really saw it for myself. It made me smile and I felt comforted. I’ve missed him so much since he died 6 years ago.

I am the model of my Aunty Winnie, she’s Mums sister, everybody says it and yes I can see it myself but the best is my son who says I will never be gone as long as his daughter, my beloved grandaughter is here..she talks likes me, walks like me, argues likes me and loves the same even to ditching her long time love just like me and meeting someone else, falling head over heels in love and marrying him in less than a year.
She’s very daring in clothes and make up and so was I for the time, late 1950s and 60s. I bought the palest pink lipstick and bleached my hair with peroxide.and used a Toni home perm and was hysterical when my hair turned green. I bought a mini skirt and bright blue eye shadow and my dad refused to to let me leave the house, he put them in the bin, I think I was born before my time and my lovely grandaughter is just carrying on the genes, she just beats me on height though by one inch, bless her.

My youngest daughter has the same hands as me. We both have small hands and she loves that they are the same.

The resemblance is not there now but it was comforting and disconcerting in equal measure that my grandaughter between the ages of about 18 months and 3 looked exactly like my son who died aged 4. I would look up sometimes and could literally jump it was so noticeable . She even had his mannerisms and she obviously had never seen him.

I look into a mirror and see my Mum as she was twenty years ago. My legs are just like my Aunt's legs.

I was stopped on the street (of a town I rarely went to) by a stranger. I was about 16.
"Are you xxx's granddaughter?"
Yes I was.
I "had the look of him".
I never knew him as he died young, well before I was born.
I do know he was loved though.
I see my uncle in my youngest son, a lot.

Walking behind my 4 year old grandson I saw his late Grandpa’s (my DH ) slight knock knees. 😌

When my first daughter was born I noticed that she smelt like my Grandma -she still carries the same scent .
In character,she's like her being extremely highly principled and not influenced by other people .
She can't walk down the road without rescuing an animal.
My Grandma was annoyed about things at church and went against the church elders even challenging the Pastor .She considered him to he a hypocrite.
I don't think that they share a physical resemblance to each other.
I don't have many photos of my long deceased Great Grandmother and I can see a likeness.

People say that I look like my Mother ,but actually I look like my father's younger sister.

When my son was younger he looked exactly like his elder sister .By the time he hit puberty he changed radically.

I love the poem ‘Heredity’ by Thomas Hardy which describes this so well. Not sure how to add a link…

I too sometimes catch sight of my reflection in a shop window and think, "That lady looks very like Grannie!" Then it dawns that I am looking at my own reflection.

But it is not only Grannie (Daddy's mother), at times I see my maternal grandmother, at other times my mother, when I look in a mirror.

An acquaintance, who had never known my father, looked at one of the later photos of him, taken when he was about 85) and immediately asked, how old my father had been when that photo was taken. I was surprised she had immediately correctly identified him, but her reply was, "Oh no, you will look like that when you are 85!!