You're in for a bit of a rough one; it's a short one, though.
When I finally saw my mother face to face for the first time in years, a passing thought went by, one that said "Yup. Definitely where I got that head shape from."
Helga took notice of it too. I may have inherited my father's blonde hair, but my mother was the one who ultimately was to blame for the "Football Head" nickname I was granted by Hell Girl herself.
As I got older, I noticed how much I actually took after my mother; sometimes people would actually look at me confused, thinking I was some sort of male version of my mother that they didn't know existed, perhaps an uncle I didn't know about.
I remember my homecoming football game my senior year. We had a mirror set up in the locker room, one that's main use was on gameday, where the guys would get decked out in their gear and then look at themselves, proud of how they looked. I, of course, also subscribed to this tradition, but on this homecoming night, I looked in the mirror and saw my mom. It was me, that's for sure, but in my mind, I registered it as my mom. I shook it off and stored that memory in the back of my head.
That was about thirty years ago, I think. I'm pushing on 50; it's a weird gap in your life, I would say, at least in mine. I know I have about 40 years left in the tank (I can thank Grandpa for that hereditary gift), but life is fickle and at any point I could just drop dead.
Since I burdened you with this time skip, I also have to mention changes, the main one being that a lot of the people I once knew are just... dead.
I didn't think about it, but I should have; Helga mentioned it to me in a conversation a long time ago, but one day you're gonna reach a point in your life where your teachers, your old family friends, etc, are going to die, and because they're all close in age, it'll hit in a wave. Not a quick wave, but a wave that's noticeable after a while.
Mom passed last year. I was devastated, and of course I was, I had a gap of almost ten years where she just wasn't in my life, and even though I had another 30 to 40 with her, I still felt as though it was too early for her to leave. However, I still see her.
Yeah, she visits from time to time. No, it's not a ghost, I promise. In fact, I saw her this morning.
I woke up at about 5:30 a.m., as I usually do for work, and got out of bed. I kissed Helga on the cheek as she sleeped as I made my way to the bathroom. As I put on my glasses and grabbed my razor, I looked up at the mirror.
Of course, my mother was staring back at me.
"Nice to see you again." I said, a somber smile on my face.
I was in France a few months ago and my little sister showed me an old photo of my dad. I look like an exact copy of him, man. It then dawned upon me that one day, in the distant future, he's gonna be gone, and when I look in the mirror, I might just look up and see his face again, one more time, as if he was an old friend popping in to say hello.
I hope you liked this one. See ya next time.