Building on what was said to me the other day, yes it is easy to tell who my Dad is when we are together. He has passed on some pretty strong genetic features and I am a mini-me. What I didn’t get from him are his long legs and that
Interest in nature. My Dad can almost plant a stick in the ground and a tree will come up. I didn’t necessarily get that from him but I do enjoy being in his garden and taking a look at what is going on. Discussing what he has planted, why the plants are doing (or not doing) well this year. What the deer are up to (eating his garden) if the bees are thriving and how much honey he is collecting. Talking to the neighbors’ goats. (but not feeding them because Dad was giving them too many snacks.) And just other odds and ends as they arise. I don’t know how Dad knows these things about plants and animals but I am glad to learn from him.
Medical curiosity. Talk has it that my Great, Great Grandfather Taylor was a pretty good doctor. (I might have the number of Greats wrong – it was a long time ago) And although dad and I are not in the medical field we both have a curiosity for how the body and its organs work. For a decade, Dad worked in different hospitals in Lake county that were remodeling and adding additions and while he was there he was very observant. He asked the physicians and nurses questions about what he saw. I do the same thing. When I worked for a dialysis company I was constantly asking the nurses about different things that came up in the clinic. The day they pulled a clot out of a patient’s tubing I was the only admin that had any questions and yes I checked that thing out. It was gross and I loved it! Watching procedures on YouTube is awesome!
Taking things apart. My Grandma used to say that she didn’t really like to spend too much money on Dad’s toys because he took everything apart. He wanted to see how it worked. He still does. It goes back to being curious. I take things apart to clean them, I don’t care how they work. I like the process of taking the pieces apart, getting everything sparkling, and looking like new. I don’t really like putting it back together, the matter of fact is I struggle with that part. But the challenge of actually getting something apart, yep I like that.
We love HARD (romantically and friendships) I am not saying my mother doesn’t love people well I want to make that clear but when Dad and I love someone it is deep, to the core, got your back, know where the bodies are buried, HARD. What also comes with this is that when we are finished with a person’s foolishness we can be as equally cold. You are forgiven, we don’t wish you ill will but the door closed, never to be reopened, finished.
We have the same smile, big brown almond-shaped eyes, ears that we can wiggle, Herman Munster sized heads, and opinions we should probably keep to ourselves but don’t. The good, the bad, and the ugly, I am Ed’s daughter and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.