Vanity of Age: You Look Like Sisters!

 

Mural, Segundo Barrio, El Paso, Texas. November 2016. Artist credit: Los Dos, Ramon and Christian Cardenas. Photo credit: Mzuriana.

My mother was 25 years older than I. 

There was a year, when she was in her late 70s, and I in the first nickel of my 50s, that she and I took some travel excursions together. Several times in that year, people - strangers - upon learning we were mother and daughter, exclaimed, "You look like sisters!" 

My mother, of course, was quite pleased. 

I was not as tickled. 

Was it because my mother looked so youthful? Or was it that I looked older? 

In Kansas City, I asked this of the sales person who made such an exclamation. She merely side-cocked her head, raised her eyebrows, and lifted her shoulders in a Gallic shrug. My comeuppance.

A puzzle never solved. 

I admit: It rankled. It also made me laugh; it still does.