What is the implied meaning of using the past tense だった before ように?
This is an example sentence in the 完全マスターN3 grammar book:
母親が明るい人だったように、その娘たちも性格が明るい。
My attempt at translation is:
Those girls have a bright personality like their mother did when she was young.
Since it's in the past tense I assume it is talking about when their mother was a girl.
If it was talking about their mother's personality now, I would say something like:
その娘たちは母親のように性格が明るい。
Is this a correct interpretation of the implied meaning of the two sentences?