Yesterday would have been my Dad’s 80th birthday.
Nearly 10 years ago I wrote a post in another blog with this same title. I used this idiom to make a parallel between my Dad and I, as it describes when different generations of a family behave in the same way of have the same talents or defects. I felt so strongly about it that I read this as part of it in my wedding speech.
I have always considered myself to be more similar to my Mum in terms of character, but as the years go by, I find myself being more and more like my Dad in many ways. For example, I repeat the same jokes and stories he has always told that in the past embarrassed me. Unfortunately, I will never have his charisma, his sense of humour… but picking up on little things makes me happy as I see him in me.
I have asked him several times before why I don’t have those aspects that I admire and cherish most about him. He is always quick to refute me by replying it’s him who wishes he was more like me. There is something in the way he says it that makes me believe we are both right.
When speaking to my mum on the phone she reminded me of the best inheritance he left us with: his behaviour. I always thought that behaviour was the way in which one acts or conducts oneself but I’ve now learnt that the definition includes “especially towards others.” That’s one of the things that made him so special, he always thought of others before himself.
My Excerpts 