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Over the last 12 months I’ve done a whole load of jobs that I’d been putting off. It started with clearing out the cupboard under stairs, went via alphabetising my book shelves and finally this week ended up with sorting out the biscuit tins of photos that have sat cluttered on a book shelf for years. Before long I was sat cross legged on the lounge carpet laughing, crying and shouting out to our Graham ‘Do you remember this holiday?!’

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And it was then that I found the photo of my Nan, I’m named after her but don’t reallyÌýremember her, she died a long time ago. A black and white picture, of a lady in a cardy, sat on a back step of a terraced house. I studied her face and after a while, like one of those magic eye pictures, slowly the image of my Mum revealed itself and then moments later, to my surprise I saw a face that looked like mine looking at me. In the face of this woman from the past I saw my own.

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The bible talks a lot about families and ancestry, but my favourite story of legacy isn’t about a biological mother and daughter at all but an adopted one, Ruth and herÌýMother in law, Naomi.ÌýÌýNaomi finds herself alone and tells Ruth she must think of herself and build her own life, but Ruth says ‘Do not urge me to leave you, where you go I will go, where you will stay I will stay, your God will be my God.’ Highlighting the interdependence of these women who then go on to continue their family story through Ruth’s children and her children’s children. We are who we are because of the people who came before us, everyone that has ever existed is part of a much bigger picture.Ìý

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Looking in the mirror I increasingly see the face of my mum looking back.ÌýÌýÌýI’ve come to understand not only are wrinkles a privilege denied to too many but also I am proud to carry the image of the beautiful humans that came before. And it carries on too, because if there’s one thing my Ruby is, it’s her mother’s daughter, and in the years to come, I hope she doesn’t mind that too much, and I hope she too will know she carries the love of the thousands who came before her.