Wrinkles and Babies

My husband looked at me yesterday from his easy chair and said, “You have wrinkles under your chin.”

“What?” I said. Did I hear the man right? Did he say I had wrinkles under my chin?

Surely not. No man in his right mind would speak those words to his wife. And most assuredly mine would not because number one he wants to live and number two he loves me too much to say something that would hurt my feelings. 

I asked him to repeat his comment.

OKAY. I heard him right. I jetted to the bathroom where the mirror confirmed there were wrinkles under my chin.

How had I missed them? 

Had I been so busy worrying about the wrinkles on my face I’d completely forgotten my neck? After all it holds up my head - one would think I would have noticed it.

I was good to my neck. I smoothed wrinkle cream on it when I did my face. I used a scrub, a mask, expensive creams. And still it lets me down.

All I can think about is my neck. 

Of course I’m not speaking to my husband who has assured me since yesterday that he hadn’t meant I actually had wrinkles on my neck. Then he changed his tune and said he loves the way I look. HIs ultimate statement was he loves the wrinkles on my neck. And the hole gets deeper.

My neck is my primary concern now. It’s as if my face has been erased from my head. When I look in the mirror all I see is my neck. I’m thinking of draping the mirrors in black.

I wonder why we women care so much about our faces and necks. I suppose because  they are at the front and center, the most apparent, what people see first when we walk into a room.

I suppose I’ll continue to slather on wrinkle creams. But I’m also going to work on not caring so much about the aging process.

I’ve thought of the one cure for the aging blues that doesn’t come in a cream or a lotion. It comes in the form of a simple word, grandchildren.

The four younger ones are coming soon from out of town to visit for a week.  All thoughts of aging will be erased from my brain when I hear their voices at the door.

When their mom told me the littlest one has been packing his suitcase for a week  in anticipation of his visit here in the country with us, I was thrilled.

I smile broadly stretching those wrinkles as far as they will go and my heart sings.
Wrinkles? Who cares? I have my babies!


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