If I Hadn't Been...

The coolest thing happened to me on Friday.

Astronomy ended and I started walking to the Wilk for soup.

…because who doesn't need soup, silly.

As I was moseying through the Bookstore trying my hardest not to run into people, I made eye-contact with a gentleman coming the other direction.  I thought I recognized him, and there was a hint of recognition on his face too.  We passed each other, and three steps later, I had an epiphany.

I whirled around to see him stopped and looking at me.

"Are you… Uncle Sid?" I asked.

"I am," he replied.

"Well Hi!  I'm Kim's daughter!" I said as I walked over to shake his hand.

We visited for a while and had a jolly good time.  Now.  Let me tell you why this was so cool.

Sidney is my great uncle—my mother's uncle.  There have only been two times in my life that I know I could have met him.  One was at a family reunion in 1998 and the other was 10 years ago when my grandpa (and his brother) passed away.  I was 7 and 12 at those respective family events—so I don't remember really meeting him or visiting with him or seeing him in real life.

How did I know who he was?  I'm just naturally awesome.  That's how.

…Not really.  I've just been working on a little family history project.  I've been scanning the autobiographies of my Great Grandma Lela and Great Grandpa Harry (Uncle Sid's parents).  As I was scanning, I was studying the pictures:

This one a little bit…

But mostly this one:

 I was studying the faces of my relatives, trying to pick out resemblances.  And if I hadn't been in the middle of this project, I could not have recognized Uncle Sid when I saw him.

It was the coolest thing.