12.04.09
The Next Generation
I love Thanksgiving. You can’t beat the food, the festivities, catching up with old friends, but my favorite part is family. I think a lot of us take them for granted all year long, but it seems as if when the holidays come, we have a natural tendency to cling to them. It’s always fun for me to see how my little nieces and nephew are growing up. Kids seem to grow up so fast these days. My nieces, Rachel and Katy, text way more than I do, and there’s never a dull moment with my seven-year-old nephew, Christopher. He is the second Jordan boy of his generation. At his young age, I realize there is no way he could know the significance of it. When my great-grandfather, Dr. John Henry Jordan, died at the age of 42, he was survived by only one child, my grandfather, Edward (who was the second Jordan boy of his generation). John would never know how his legacy would continue, or if it would. It struck me as my sister-in-law, Michelle, recently showed me a photo she took of my little nephew sitting next to a family portrait of my great-grandfather, my great-grandmother, Mollie, and my grandfather. Ironically, my grandfather was about Christopher’s same age at the time the photo was taken. And as my sister-in-law points out, Christopher has the same expression on his face as my grandfather had on his when the portrait was taken about 100 years ago. How strange is that? It almost gives me goosebumps. My grandfather would have been so proud of Christopher. Of course, my dad is proud enough for the both of them.
