I remember my mother and, when it came her time, my sister being absolutely consumed by the lines on their face and hands. Being so much younger than my sister, I always thought they were making a HUGE deal about nothing. Then, something happened after I turned 40. To my dismay, it wasn’t so much wrinkles as it was this thin papery skin I was starting to produce! Many of us affectionately call this phenomenon “chicken skin”. I am here to tell you that until you have it you will think “hey, I have earned these wrinkles. I can handle this gracefully”. Then you unknowingly use one of these new, high velocity hand dryers at some eating establishment and – POW – your mind is blown away. You look down at your hands as your skin ripples and your vein’s stand at attention. It is my mother’s hands! Where did they come from?
My friend Valeri, who is enviously 7 + years younger than me, has had me in her corner preparing her, as the creeping road marks of this battle between us and time has been tapping at her door. I remember the “flippant” way she used to encourage me with the honest truth that no one looks at MY face and hands as much as I do. Then, as all of us will attest to, this ravaging beast (the grim reaper of youthful skin) began paying a visit on my poor friend. I can still remember the “I should have had a V-8” sound in her voice as she had to be talked down off the wall.
We have all seen the “instant beauty” wrinkle remover that people fan on their older relatives for the amazing result. OK. They got me. I had to try this and can say that it does work – but it is a “stretch” not to feel like Tim Allen in the movie Christmas With The Krank’s when his character can’t feel or use his face after a Botox treatment. There will be creams, treatments and surgery for those who can afford it. In the long run though, time marches on – right across every one of our faces. We have earned them from sleepless nights with new babies, sleepless nights waiting for teenagers to get home and our everyday struggles with life in general.
The trick is we have to own them. They make us the face that our grand babies recognize.
