The Very Same Coin, I Tell You.

I am the spitting image of my mother.  My nose is slightly smaller, but other than that I'm all her.  We have the same hair and the same eyes and the same toes.  My whole life has been full of listening to people say,

Child, you look just like ya Mama.  You do know that, right?

Little Jan!  I'd know who you belong to just by lookin' at ya.

You look just like your sweet mother!  I'm sure you get that a lot.

Nobody ever said I looked like Daddy.  Except once.

A lady I don't know but won't ever forget came up to me and said, 

By God, girl, if you are not the spittin' image of Rhett Maris, then I don't know who is. 

Before she walked away she added offhandedly with a bit of a smile, 

Huh.  I think you may look a little like his mother, too.

 She turned swiftly, and I choked back tears and muttered a thank you too quiet to be noticed.

  

My mama always says that when I was born I looked so much like her that Daddy would say, a little begrudgingly, 

You can't tell I had anything to do with her.

He shouldn't have been worried because just as much as I am mother, I am also him.

You see, Daddy and I are a peculiar pair.  We are just enough alike and just enough different that we either really get along nice or we butt heads at every turn.  There is no medium heat for the two of us, and I like it that way.  It means that good or bad, happy or sad, we're us.  Real all the way, and we love each other too much to ever give up on the other.

We don't have to speak to understand each other.  A look or squeeze of hands will always do. 

Daddy taught me to love music and appreciate the importance of the written word. 

He inspired my love of cooking.

  I try to choke back a cry the same way he does, and when we laugh, I mean really laugh, we throw our heads back at just the same angle.  

If you watch closely, you can always see him in my facial expressions, and he is ever present in my thought processes.

His life has taught me that where you come from doesn't have to dictate where you're going.

More than anyone else, he is who I want to be proud of me. 

I am certain that God could have chosen no better man to be my father, to challenge me in all the right ways and push me beyond my imagined limits and teach me unwavering love.

We really are two sides of the same coin, Daddy and me.  We were made to fit together; we belong to each other.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.  I love you so very much,