It's in my blood-

Thanks to a busy travel schedule, and some good planning, I was able to visit my mother and family in Aiken county, South Carolina for a few days. Along with having dinner with my brother and his wife, visiting and watching "Dancing with the Stars" with my nephew and his new bride, and having some pleasant lunches with my mother, she and I visited my oldest living relative. She is my Aunt Jenny Lou, who is the sister of my grandfather, on my father's side. She lives alone in a modest little house in North Augusta, SC. At 89 (she had a difficult time remembering her exact age), she is petite, dainty, gentle, and beautiful. She was waiting in a rocking chair on her front porch. She apparently had been sitting in the porch for hours since my mother's call earlier that day.
She called me by my father's name, she said how much I looked like my father.

I took long looks at her--I stared at her eyes, her face, her smile. I heard her words, her phrases, her cadence, her tone. I saw me... in her. I felt our family connection. I never felt that I had to be explained to her--she knew me, we were family. As I heard her talk about caring for other people, for giving her housekeeper small household items, for giving sacrificially, for trusting someone who was very different,
I thought, "well, no wonder I am the way I am. " It's in my blood--and for that I am grateful.