Compliments & Kindness

I thought about this incident last night before I fell asleep. On a past cruise, a younger woman we met (maybe in her 40s) said this to me after meeting us and chatting a while. “I don’t mean to be mean, but I thought you were his mother.” Um, really?

Yeah, shocked, and a bit upset, but I shook it off. This is what happens when your spouse has amazing genes from his mother’s side – at 92 she could pass for 62. Thanks to Ancestry DNA, we know more about her genetic history and there are some answers there to their youthful appearance. Me? Scottish and Irish, no luck. Wrinkles, crepey skin, age marks – they’re having a field day with my body.

So I just keep smiling, remembering that the smile helps hide the wrinkles and the glasses help hide my genetic dark circles. I’ll be 76 this year and last year I decided I wasn’t going to try to hide my jiggly upper arms. I guess this year I need to remember that not everyone makes it to this age and I shouldn’t take it personally.

Another comment that took me back but made me laugh later, was made to some strangers when they commented on her dimples. She was around age five or six. “My mommy used to have one but it’s hidden in a wrinkle.” Sigh…

Not sure what’s up with all the C-letter words. I wonder if it will continue or if I will move to another letter. Hmmm…

Have you ever received a strange comment or compliment?

Till next time…

3 thoughts on “Compliments & Kindness

  1. When I was active duty Army, a friend of mine and I were talking when out of the blue, some guy says that we don’t look like we’re in the Army. With emphasis on the word look. Like, what were we supposed to look like? Arg….

  2. “You’re just kind of weird.” At the time I was taken aback but over the years I’ve let it become a badge of honor.

  3. “I bet you used to be pretty,” a young man said. My mom used to say, if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all. It’s sad not too many people adhere to that philosophy. 😊

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