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Have you ever looked in the mirror and seen .................... your grandmother?

(91 Posts)
25Avalon Wed 16-Jun-21 16:53:17

Got a shock the other day. As I was coming in the back door I caught my reflection in the glass and thought that’s my grandmother! My grandmother died when I was 15 so a real flashback out of the blue. I have grown my hair long during lockdown and no longer have a fringe. With a head band on, exposing my forehead and wearing glasses I recognised her immediately. It was uncanny as I never thought I looked like her. Weird.

nanna8 Fri 18-Jun-21 12:43:26

One of my children , as a 12 year old,looked so like my mother did as a girl of the same age, that when she met my mother’s sister for the first and last time ( overseas) my mum’s sister went all pale and thought she had seen a ghost ! Weird things genetics.

Aepgirl Fri 18-Jun-21 12:39:22

I see my sister, who died in 2012, when I look in the mirror. When she was alive I never noticed a resemblance.

JoMarch1962 Fri 18-Jun-21 12:25:51

I see my mother- well what she would have looked like with long hair and “that black stuff around your eyes” as she once called it ( as in “Do you have to wear that black stuff....?”)
In the year before she died she turned into the spit of her mother ( longer hair, brushed not styled), so I expect I will turn into my grandma too. My daughter and I are always being told that we resemble each other ( which obvs thrills me, her, not so much...) and her son at 7 weeks looks v like her. And so the genes continue...

Parsley3 Fri 18-Jun-21 12:23:14

Yes I do. I am the same age now as my grandmother was when she died and I am her spitting image.

Daisymae Fri 18-Jun-21 11:57:28

Sort of see my mum sometimes. My gran was a little old lady in a pinny with no teeth, so don't see her in my reflection. Yetconfused

Anneeba Fri 18-Jun-21 11:51:08

Yes! See my mother gazing back, albeit with completely different hair (no classic perm for me thanks ha!). More disconcerting is that I feel like my brother, who died recently, when I eat; I can see his mouth moving as he chewed and I feel like my mouth is doing the same slightly distinctive movement. I'd never be able to be on Masterchef as a judge, I don't chew elegantly, though I never chew with my mouth open! (Can't bear people who chomp away with their mouths opening all the time).

Alioop Fri 18-Jun-21 11:45:53

Not yet. I'm the only redhead, which thank goodness I'm still hanging onto. My grannies were already grey when I was a child. I have my dad's eyes though, but not his comb over grin

Fran72 Fri 18-Jun-21 11:45:23

Just what happened to me. I'm wearing my hair up now and passed a mirror. And there she was, Kezia Walsh - my great grandma! I feel very honoured but wonder if 15 months of no makeup was really a good idea!

Shortlegs Fri 18-Jun-21 11:43:16

I am my dad reincarnate, right down to the odd bits of wood and lengths of string in the garage that will come in useful "one of these days".

Perdido Fri 18-Jun-21 11:36:15

Theoddbird

I have my father's facial bone structure I think. My eldest grandson is the splitting image of his great great grandfather. In pictures looks like same person.

I had a half sister. We had the same mother. I look like my father and she looked nothing like either our mother or her own father. It always bothered her.

Becoming interested in family history, I came across a distant cousin on Ancestry who had shared a photo of our maternal great, great grandmother as a young woman. It is one of those Victorian pictures where the sitter is wearing a fur coat and huge hat. There, looking straight to camera was the spitting image of my half-sister even to the distinctive way her front teeth crossed ever so slightly.

I had a photo of my sister where her head position was almost identical. I photoshopped her face into the Victorian shot and send her both asking her to spot the difference.

Amazing how ancestral traits can come though several generations as if there had been no genetic mixing in between.

Severnsider Fri 18-Jun-21 11:30:54

Yes, I see my mother when I look in the mirror, I'm beginning to act like her too, grumbling about everything!

Battersea1971 Fri 18-Jun-21 11:23:51

When i look in the mirror i see my mother looking back at me. In later life she was on the heavy side, and i seem to be going the same way¬!

tictacnana Fri 18-Jun-21 11:19:47

I only knew one grandmother and , thank God, I’m nothing like her. My OH saw a picture of her and described her as having fallen from the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. She wasn’t a nice person either . I hope that I didn’t inherit anything from her.

Elvis58 Fri 18-Jun-21 11:16:42

My mother.

Cycorax Fri 18-Jun-21 11:12:45

Sadly I am becoming more and more like my mother both physically and in my character. Not great!

Jillybird Fri 18-Jun-21 11:10:37

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TrendyNannie6 Fri 18-Jun-21 11:09:40

It’s quite uncanny really as if I look at photos of myself I look like my dad, yet when I see my reflection it’s my mum

TerryM Fri 18-Jun-21 11:06:03

Definitely my dad looks back .
His nose and face shape

Theoddbird Fri 18-Jun-21 10:59:46

I have my father's facial bone structure I think. My eldest grandson is the splitting image of his great great grandfather. In pictures looks like same person.

Daisend1 Fri 18-Jun-21 10:59:37

I resemble my father in looks and most important his character which has got me where I am today.

SueLindsey Fri 18-Jun-21 10:52:54

A few years ago I looked in the mirror and saw my mother. It really freaked me out as we always had a difficult relationship! Thankfully I havent "seen" her in the mirror since.

Ladyleftfieldlover Fri 18-Jun-21 10:51:17

I don’t look a bit like my mum but there are hints of dad and one of his sisters. My sister is the double of one of our paternal great aunts. My younger son has the face of OH’s paternal grandmother. Genes, eh!

jenni123 Fri 18-Jun-21 10:49:07

I was adopted so have no idea how my parents would look now, although I did trace my birth family and got a pic of my birth mother holding me as a new baby and people who knew me as a young woman , when they see the picture they think it is me holding one of my children. My daughter looks and sounds like me, especially on the phone.

Moggycuddler Fri 18-Jun-21 10:47:38

I don't remember either of my grandmothers. They both died before I was born. I don't look like my mother, or my father, especially. (Though I do hear my mother in my voice and things I say sometimes.) My daughter, however, is the image of my dad, but in a very feminine way, I hasten to add! I look at her sometimes and see him.

Yammy Fri 18-Jun-21 10:46:08

When I look in the mirror I see my mother fat, specs,going grey, luckily I was persuaded to have a different hairstyle at the hairdressers so I don't look like a budgie like she did.
The odd thing is until lockdown I looked like my dad and his sister, all my life and even my grandad on that side I have been fair. I still have my dads feet and legs but my apple body shape is definitely my mother.