October 22: genetics

My aunts all said that if you took my cousin Adrienne and me and combined our features you would get Jenny. All I’d ever seen was the portrait when she was older, so I couldn’t see it until my grandmother died and my aunt Chris went through all the pictures with me. We sorted, guessed, confirmed all kinds of first communion pictures, snapshots of fishing trips, postcards and cardboard backed studio pictures. When we got to the picture of Jenny as a younger woman, then I saw it. I don’t know about coloring--although her brothers had such light eyes you could tell even in sepia tone they were blue. But I think her genes are strong--many years separate us but here we are.